Just when you thought the digital divide was getting smaller EBSCO, Forbes and Time are trying to pry it back open. One of the major database companies EBSCO is making a grab for even more money by creating a monopoly on some more commercial publications of popular magazines. The content for titles such as People, Forbes and Time has already been paid for by advertising and subscriptions, but now those publishers and ESBCO want to charge you even more for access to them. This especially hurts public libraries, which could hurt efforts to close the digital divide – creating a further gap between the poor and the wealthy. You may not use your public library but many depend upon it.

EBSCO has recently made an exclusive deal to gain a monopoly on the content of many popular magazines. The publishers of these magazines were concerned that public library users were accessing their content for free and not subscribing to their publications. Because of this they have been seeking a strategy to recover lost revenue.  Don’t the libraries subscribe for the benefit of their communities?

These pubs told the database vendors they were going to go with one, and only one aggregator and that they wanted a high price for their content. EBSCO at a very substantial cost won the bid.  Now they will be the sole provider of content for such titles as: Time, Time for Kids, History Today, People, People Espanol, Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Kids, US News & World Report, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, Money, Discover, New Republic and New Scientist.

So if your state or district or school does not purchase an EBSCO database, you will not have access to the current issues and back archives of these publications. With federal, state and local budget cuts many libraries are unsure of whether they can continue all their database subscriptions.

Sam Brooks, senior vice president of EBSCO Publishing, defended the company’s advocacy of library interests and its policies for creating premium products. Brooks was clearly proud of EBSCO’s achievement in collecting “the most important general periodicals” by which “many libraries can save money by avoiding full-text database vendor duplication.”

Should one company be allowed to have a monopoly on information? Think of how much tax dollars will be spent  by all the libraries across the country to line the pockets of these large for-profit corporations.