From the moment Betsy Hardi laces up her shoes in the morning to when she locks the door behind her at night, her ears are filled with stories
The 35-year-old dog walker spends her entire day on the trail or in the car between clients. She embarks on magic adventures, learns about the logistics of nuclear weapons, explores moments in history and more — all by popping in her headphones.
“During COVID, I needed something to do. That’s when I started picking up books again,” Hardi said. “Even when I was home doing a jigsaw puzzle or baking bread or whatever it was that we all picked up during COVID, it was nice to have an audiobook in my ear.”
Hardi is one of thousands who signed up for digital library cards during the pandemic’s peak, and more flock to Colorado libraries’ e-materials each year.
But the boom in e-book popularity is accompanied by a hefty price tag, forcing libraries to allocate more than half their collection budgets to digital materials, which make up less than half of their circulation.
The increased cost has strained the budgets of at least three Colorado library systems to the point that staff have implemented new limits on who can access their highly sought-after e-books and e-audiobooks.
Which Colorado libraries plan to limit digital access?
Denver Public Libraries added restrictions to its digital lending system for the first time in August. Before, anyone could register online for an “e-card” and access the library’s digital catalog. Now, patrons must visit a branch in person and prove they live in Colorado.
Larimer County’s Poudre Libaries and Anythink in Adams County both plan to roll out similar changes later this year.
“We just could not keep up with demand,” said Stacy Watson, director of collection services at Denver Public Libraries. “We were putting so much money into it weekly to meet the wait times for holds, and the only way to curb it was to … ensure that the other people using our collections were actually Colorado residents.”
But one library locking down access can inadvertently increase the holds and wait times at other Colorado libraries that haven’t implemented that change.
“When neighbor libraries start (limiting access), then our use increases because suddenly those people are displaced,” Douglas County Libraries’ Collection Services Manager Kate Prestwood said. “We start supporting the whole state, it feels like at times.”
Prestwood said she once asked Overdrive, a popular platform library patrons use to check out e-books and e-audiobooks, what it would cost to have no holds and “meet every need on the docket today.” The answer: more than $7 million, only for holds to start stacking up again the next day.
That striking price tag has two factors: the increasing number of people on the waitlist and the price per e-book.
Libraries usually pay more than $65 for a two-year license on an e-book, which the average American would pay $12.99 for, and upwards of $100 for e-audiobooks. A print book that costs libraries less than $15 can be loaned out until it falls apart.
When “Onyx Storm” by Rebecca Yarros was released on Jan. 31, Jefferson County Public Libraries spent $3,300 on 166 print copies of the new release. The library then spent $22,000 on roughly 360 e-books, at three times the cost per copy.
Under the most common purchasing models, libraries are limited in their e-book use to a specified number of checkouts or length of time, Anythink Executive Director Mark Fink said. Once those run out, the book can’t be borrowed until the library repurchases it, driving the cost up even further to keep a book in circulation.
“We really can’t curate an ongoing (digital) collection,” said Stacy Watson, director of collection services at Denver Public Libraries. “Everything expires, so you have to continue to purchase them if there’s still a demand. … It’s not fair at all to libraries, and I think it’s hitting a crisis level.”
“There’s only so much money”
Fink previously worked for California library systems and said the high-cost issue of digital media is a national dilemma.
The number of OverDrive readers increased 33% during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a 2023 report from the American Library Association. Digital readership continued to grow nationally in each consecutive year by roughly 30%, according to the Urban Library Council.
In Colorado, that number is closer to 20%, said Franca Rosen, an interlibrary loan and collection services manager at Jefferson County Public Libraries.
It’s common for avid e-book readers to have multiple library cards across Colorado, shop around for popular titles and see which locations have the shortest waits, Rosen said, adding that some of the most enthusiastic patrons will place holds on e-content at all Colorado libraries, hoping to cut the line.
Between disproportionate costs, new restrictions and an increasing demand for e-books, libraries have shifted how they’re budgeting for books, Fink said.
In 2019, Anythink spent 32.5% of its $2.6 million collections budget on e-books and e-audiobooks. The library system more than doubled its digital spending in the five years after, jumping to $1.67 million in 2024.
The library system’s circulation budget grew by about $1 million during that time. Nearly all of the increase was allocated to e-books.
Fink said it’s common today for libraries to spend more than half their collections budget on e-materials, even if it accounts for less than half of their circulation.
For other Colorado library systems:
- Douglas County Libraries spent more than $3.1 million on e-books and e-audiobooks in 2024, 70% of the library’s total collection budget and more than double the $1.3 million it spent on physical materials. Digital loans accounted for 35% of its circulation that year.
- Between 2019 and 2024, the digital budget for Jefferson County Public Libraries increased by more than 40%. The $4.1 million spent on e-books and e-audiobooks in 2024 accounted for 54% of the library’s total materials budget, even though only 24% of the library’s circulation was digital.
- Poudre Libraries’ digital materials budget is more than twice the size of its physical budget, but roughly 33% of the library’s 2024 circulation was digital.
- Denver Public Libraries saw a 50/50 split between print and digital for both the library system’s budget and circulation in 2024.
Rebecca Schuh, a collection development librarian at Poudre Libraries, said her e-book budget is “tapped out” and increased wait times for e-books are unavoidable.
Schuh used to allocate extra money from the physical materials budget to e-media where possible, but she said that bar is “as low as it can go.” If she takes any more from the physical budget, she’d be unable to meet demand for the print collection.
“There’s only so much money,” she said.