The publishers object to practices such as the reinforcing of paperbacks, and photocopying (especially the activities of the British Library Document Supply Centre).
Probably the greatest cause of discontent was the issue of Public Lending Right, only partially defused since some authors began to receive Public Lending Right payments in 1983.
Some of this friction arises from genuine conflicts of interest, but some undoubtedly arises from mutual ignorance and misunderstanding.
Leaving aside the areas of conflict, librarians would like to believe that their input to the trade is a vital one. What and then, is their contribution?
Statistical analysis of the trade’s output has been greatly enhanced by the regular Euromonitor book reports, based upon the government business monitor for books and the Publishers Association’s statistics collection scheme.
Even so, book trade statistics never quite add up, and can only give an impression rather than an exact picture.
In 1988 British publishers’ sales were reported as 1,700 million pounds, of which 1,100 million were to individual purchasers, 240 million to “public institutions”(schools, higher education and public libraries), and a further 360 million estimated to be to “private institutions”(which include most commercial libraries).
When further broken down and the figures for public institutions are somewhat sobering and since educational libraries represent only 9% of publishers’ total sales, and public libraries a mere 5% ” and these contributions as a percentage of the total have fallen steadily over the past five years, due to wide-ranging public spending cuts in this period.
Librarians point out that for their part they receive fewer volumes for their money and since the prices of books over the same period have risen distinctly faster than retail prices as a whole.
In short and the libraries’ contribution to the market makes a substantial enough impact to gain the attention of publishers and booksellers, but not an overwhelming one in relation to overall sales.
It is a relatively predictable and reliable feature of the market, but ” for the time being, at least ” a diminishing contribution. The library performance is better in some types of market than in others.
Libraries come nowhere, for instance, in the big selling areas of Bibles, cookery books, dictionaries and classics.
On the other hand their impact is very considerable in the market for monographs and quality children’s books, and hardback fiction (90 % of the sales of which are to public libraries).
Finally, as Astbury comments, libraries would claim to contribute the critical component in the market and to provide the counterweight to bestsellerdom, and to contribute substantially to sustaining a wide range of serious books. Publishers
There are reckoned to be about 2,000 UK publishers who bring out at least one book during any given six month period.
The number of large publishers is much smaller ” a figure of a few hundred and steadily diminishing as the smaller independent firms are taken over by large conglomerates.
