Who is afraid of libraries? – opinion

Written by Eduardo Santos

Physical or digital book? Repeated discussion: There are those who do not give up the smell of paper and who prefer the light screen. But until recently, many Portuguese were unable to form an opinion, as we were the only country in the European Union without a public book loan platform in their libraries. In 2025 onlyBliolo

And the audience’s response cannot be more clear. In just two months, more than 17,000 people already scored (registration on the platform means the previous registration to the face in their library), and more than 21,000 digital books were borrowed. The minister himself admitted that such expressive adhesion is not expected. Search, after all, it was always present. The access was only missing. The question remains: Why did we have to wait for a long time?

However, not everything is good news. Although the display of digital books is different and has high quality content, the catalog is still far from competing with paper. The reason is simple: unlike the material book, which the library can buy freely, e -books can only be accessed through special licenses. This means that the presence of a digital book in a library depends on the good publisher of the publisher who publishes it. This goodwill was rare.

This resistance is led by some of the largest Portuguese publishers, the Portuguese Association of Editors and Devndente (Apel), which appealed to the public platform compartment. Most of the country’s main liberation groups rejected a license written by digital by libraries. Technically vague and vague justifications: The “safety” of the platform is called without referring to a specific failure; It indicates the conditions“Piracy” and “unfair competition”

As if the library loan, with compensation for use, was similar to sharing illegal files. He mentioned the absence of geographical location, as if in itself nullifies the entire form. In any case, more like excuses to hide the true nucleus of the question: The fact that they believe that libraries are – in their words – “the risk of destroying the book industry.” This logic is very wrong and dangerous. one The latest report from the United Kingdom He concluded that facilitating the library loan would help promote reading, which is clearly necessary for a health researcher. On the other hand, a The study was conducted in Australia

He explains that the digital book loan through libraries can fully coexist with sales.

But the most important of the economic arguments is the fact that the library that cannot provide secondary or less interesting addresses do not correspond to its social function in its public interest. Libraries cannot be reduced to the remains of publishers catalog, limited to secondary publishers or books that no longer have commercial attention. Allowing publishers to determine what may appear or not appear in the digital catalogs of libraries is to give up the collective right in favor of special interests. The mission of libraries is to ensure free, global and enlightened access to knowledge, culture and reading. This means that the ability to provide the most relevant books, including the most famous books, regarding their budgets and technical standards for their professionals. The good news is that this is not a lost battle. In 2016, the European Union’s Justice Court, in the rulingFib

He admitted that libraries can provide digital versions of their material samples on the loan subject to control. That is, in the face of publishers’ refusal to license e -books, there will be no other alternative that encourages libraries to provide the books of these publishers in this way.

Some say that if the concept of the library is invented today, it will never pass: it will be seen as an institutional piracy. There is no better example of this even from the position of the book seller in the face of making e -books in libraries. But this view ignores everything that libraries represent: freedom of access to knowledge, social cohesion, civil development and readers.

While publishers prevent digital access, the book market grows in dull growth. Sales have increased by 9 % in 2024 alone, especially public youth, and the collection of 30 % growth in the past five years. There is no crisis. Yes, there is a more powerful liberalization sector, due to the libraries that formed their readers, and contribute to expanding the sector by buying thousands of books annually.

If we allow the social function of libraries by the direct commercial interests of some publishers, we will monitor the end of the idea of ​​the public library as we know it. In the material world, no publisher can prevent a book purchased from entering a library. In the digital world, the same principle must be guaranteed. It is not acceptable for publishers to accept it only when they accept and accept each other.

The issue is neither technological nor commercial. It is political and cultural. When accessing books is prevented for commercial reasons, it not only protects profits, but also limits the right to read. This, yes, must be the real debate.

Do you ask: Who is afraid of libraries? National Coordinator