It's been a tough year for public libraries.
In March, President Trump issued an executive order to dismantle the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the only federal agency devoted to funding public libraries (a decision reversed in November by a Rhode Island District Court judge). Then, in May, the president also delivered a blow to the nation's leading library when he fired Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. At the same time, libraries across the country have continued to face challenges to what books should and should not be available on their shelves – and pressure to remove certain titles – culminating in lawsuits in states like Texas and Florida.
Now, the nation's largest distributor of print books to public libraries – Baker & Taylor – is set for imminent closure.
For nearly 200 years, Baker & Taylor has played a key role in getting books from manufacturers to warehouses to library patrons' hands. Partnering with more than 5,000 U.S. libraries, the company has been a staple in the industry, selling books at wholesale prices and providing them with labels and lamination so libraries don't have to.
The closure comes as a surprise but not a shock to many in the industry, as the company faced several challenges in recent years, including a data breach in 2022 – after the company was acquired by a private investment group in 2021 – that put it in what independent library consultant Marshall Breeding called "a weak financial position."
Librarians including Kelly Emory, lead cataloguer at Greensboro Public Library in rural Maryland, had been hearing rumors of trouble after Baker & Taylor's planned merger with ReaderLink, a distributor to booksellers, fell through in late September. But many learned the first solid news of the closure from an employee's post on Reddit last fall.
NPR reached out to Baker & Taylor for comment, but received no response.
Emory said part of her job is to work with distributors to get the books patrons want; Baker & Taylor was the primary vendor she partnered with. Now, she said, the Greensboro branch library is one of many libraries scrambling to find another way to get books on their shelves, particularly the newest releases from household names like James Patterson and Danielle Steel.
When NPR spoke with Emory in December, she said that while her library had releases from 2025 on the shelves, the newest book had come out over three months before, in early September – All the Way to the River, the memoir from Elizabeth Gilbert. "They're new releases, but not the newest releases, unfortunately," she said. It was unclear, she added, when they'd get any newer titles.
"Baker & Taylor ceased shipping everything to us," she explained. "We stopped ordering from them in October. We have standing orders with them to get the new and popular titles from certain authors, but they haven't been shipping them to us."
Now, like thousands of other libraries around the country, Greensboro Public Library is in the process of setting up a new account with Ingram Content Group, Baker & Taylor's main competitor. And though Carolyn Morris, vice president of library services at Ingram, said that the company is "well positioned" to work with the libraries that Baker & Taylor serviced, she also acknowledged that the process will take time and a lot of resources on Ingram's part.
"It's not a flip of a switch. We still have to… hire people, make sure we have enough inventory to meet the new demand and get people trained," she said. Since Baker & Taylor began winding down, around 2,000 libraries have set up new accounts with Ingram.
Both Morris and Emory said they are cautiously optimistic that libraries can get back on track in the new year. Breeding, the library consultant, agreed – but added that this could have long-term ramifications. He pointed out that if patrons aren't able to get print books in time, they may begin to turn to e-books. Leasing e-books is much more expensive for libraries, and the contracts generally only allow for a set number of checkouts, according to Emory. So libraries would need to find a way to manage this new demand and associated cost.
It's one of many strains that libraries will have to shoulder in the near future. "This comes at a really bad time for public libraries," Breeding said. "And now they have to deal with [finding] new ways to buy their books. So, yeah, this is a hard time to be a public librarian."
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