Understanding the Governance Challenges of Public Libraries Subscribing to Digital Content Distributors

As popular demand for digital information increases, public libraries are increasingly turning to commercial digital content distribution (DCD) services such as Hoopla and OverDrive to save curation time and costs. We conducted interviews with 15 public librarians in the United States to examine their experiences with these subscriptions. Our findings revealed that subscribing libraries face many digital governance challenges, including the subpar quality of received content, a lack of control in the curation process, and a limited understanding of how these distribution services operate. We also found that DCD subscriptions induce a fundamental shift in librarians’ curatorial focus from “what to include” to “what to exclude.” We discuss how building robust and transparent DCD content governance policies and facilitating collaborations among librarians can help address data governance challenges within the DCD model. We also examine the role that library users, lawmakers, and library associations can play in alleviating librarians’ curation labor.