Answers to frequently asked questions about DPLA’s agreement with Amazon Publishing

By Michele Kimpton, June 2, 2021.
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Last week we shared the news that DPLA has signed an agreement with Amazon Publishing  to bring their ebooks and audiobooks to the DPLA Exchange, our not-for-profit, library-centered ebooks marketplace. We’ve been so pleased by our community’s response to this news, and I wanted to take a few minutes to provide answers to some of the questions we’ve been asked, and to be clear about what we don’t yet know:

  • Libraries will be able to access Amazon Publishing ebooks and audiobooks through the DPLA Exchange beginning this summer. We expect that approximately 10,000 Amazon Publishing ebook titles will be available in the Exchange by the end of the year. Audiobook titles will be added after ebook titles. We will make more information available about the audiobook titles when we have it. (Our agreement does not cover titles from Audible or Kindle Direct Publishing.)
  • DPLA Exchange membership is free to all libraries. If you’d like to become a member, you can find out more here. At this time, the DPLA Exchange is available only to libraries in the U.S.
  • Like the other 765,000+ titles available in the DPLA Exchange, Amazon Publishing ebooks and audiobooks will be served to patrons via the SimplyE app developed by New York Public Library.
  • The SimplyE app allows libraries to serve content from most of the major content providers, including Overdrive, Baker & Taylor, and Bibliotheca, as well as the DPLA Exchange.
  • Amazon Publishing titles will be available to libraries via four licensing models:
    • Unlimited, one user at a time access, two-year license
    • Bundles of 40 lends, available with a maximum of 10 simultaneously, with no time limit to use the lends
    • Bundles of five lends, available simultaneously, with no time limit to use the lends
    • 26 lends, one user at a time access, the lesser of two years or 26 lends license
  • Patron data and information regarding the titles that individual libraries purchase will not be shared with Amazon Publishing. 
  • As with our other agreements, pricing is set by the publisher. We do not have information on pricing for Amazon Publishing titles. Title prices will be visible on the DPLA Exchange when the books become available.

We will have more information to share about our ebooks work in the coming weeks and months. You can sign up for our newsletter here and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date. 

Thank you for your continued support of DPLA and our mission to make knowledge freely accessible to all.

DPLA’s ebook work is supported by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.