Pay Per Use
First introduced in 2015, the pay per use model is a lending model whereby libraries pay an individual fee for each time an item is accessed by a patron. This means each time a patron checks out an ebook, audiobook, video, music or movie, the library is charged a nominal fee -usually a small percentage of the digital list price- for that usage.
The pay per use model allows users to have access to more content than a library could offer through the traditional one user/one copy perpetual or expiring ownership payment model. Public Libraries also often put per user lending limits in place to prevent users from accessing too much content in a month, and the lending limits are between 7 to 21 days per item checked out in the traditional perpetual model. This means that if a library has purchased 3 copies of a bestselling title and 10 patrons want to check it out, 7 people will have their request placed on hold and will have to wait until the other patrons have returned their copies.[1]
A very important benefit of the pay per use model is that it has no ‘one reader one book’ rules, and a title can have hundreds of users at once – with the library paying for every user, of course. This means that if a downloaded title is re-accessed a month later by the same person, the digital library will be charged again[2]. Another benefit is that it helps libraries manage popular titles both from the perspective of meeting demand and also appropriately managing the budget to meet this demand, such that the library does not spend a big part of their collection budget to buy one title and then, when demand wanes, they are left with hundreds of copies of a book that is no longer circulating. A pay per use model is also cost-effective for low-circulating material. For a title that only one or two patrons will access in a year, it makes more sense to pay a small percentage of the traditional perpetual model -the latter can be up to 4 or more times the retail price.
Some providers further mitigate this by allowing libraries to set purchasing limits up front. For example, Odilo, an intelligent digital library provider and pioneer of the pay per use model, allows libraries/schools to set up purchase plans for how they want their pay per use collections to work by defining a maximum number of checkouts per user per week as well as maximum dollar caps per month. By doing so, they can manage their allotted budget and ensure that they can continue to meet demand throughout the year.
Sources
Fishburn, P. & Odlyzko, A. Competitive pricing of information goods: Subscription pricing versus pay-per-use. Economic Theory (1999) 13: 447. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001990050264
Greshberg, A. (2002). Empowering Parents while Making Them Pay: Autonomous Schools and Education Reform Processes in Nicaragua. The Community Development Research Center Robert J. Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy New School University. New York.
Jansen, et al (1998). Pay per use for data-network-based public access services. Retrieved from: https://patents.google.com/patent/US6243450B1/en
References
- ↑ Fishburn, Peter C.; Odlyzko, Andrew M. (1999-02-19). "Competitive pricing of information goods: Subscription pricing versus pay-per-use". Economic Theory. 13 (2): 447–470. doi:10.1007/s001990050264. ISSN 0938-2259.
- ↑ "Figure 6—figure supplement 4. Expression of genes involved in p53 pathway is correlated with SPIN1 expression". dx.doi.org. Retrieved 2019-05-27.
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