A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Libraries across the country are having a hard time buying new books. That's because earlier this year, Baker & Taylor, the nation's largest library book distributor, stopped selling them.
KIP ROBERSON: I think a lot of people weren't prepared for the shutdown.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Kip Roberson is director of library services for Teton County Library in Wyoming. His library uses Ingram Content Group, another book distributor. Baker & Taylor faced several financial challenges leading up to its closure. Roberson says that after the shutdown...
ROBERSON: If you wanted to order materials for your library, Ingram was the only game in town, for the most part. Libraries were scrambling to set up accounts, learn the software.
MARTÍNEZ: Regular shipments for new books now take longer to get to libraries.
ROBERSON: Everything slowed down. Three days was the norm for getting books to us, and it would be 10 days, two weeks.
MARTÍNEZ: So if you're sitting on a long waitlist at your local library for the latest John Grisham or Nora Roberts book, be patient. Kate Laughlin is executive director of the Association for Rural and Small Libraries.
KATE LAUGHLIN: If you put in your request for 20 copies of the latest title in the series that everybody's waiting for, but they'll only send you 10 instead of 20 because they've got this huge demand suddenly that they didn't have before, we're going to feel it in those wait lines.
FADEL: She says Baker & Taylor provided more than just the books themselves.
LAUGHLIN: You could get the books already wrapped in Mylar and with a barcode or an RFID tag already inserted in it. It served a number of purposes for libraries where they didn't have the capacity nor the staffing.
FADEL: Now libraries are working to fill the gaps. That includes turning to Amazon to fill book orders.
LAUGHLIN: The libraries do what they need to do to meet the needs of their collection and their community.
FADEL: Because, she says, libraries' No. 1 priority is getting books and other materials to the people who rely on them.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
