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LIKE a tired marriage, the relationship between libraries and publishers has long been reassuringly dull. E-books, however, are causing heartache. Libraries know they need digital wares if they are to remain relevant, but many publishers are too wary of piracy and lost sales to co-operate. Among the big six, only Random House and HarperCollins license e-books with most libraries. The others have either denied requests or are reluctantly experimenting. In August, for example, Penguin will start a pilot with public libraries in New York. 就像是一个令人疲惫的婚姻，图书馆和出版商之间长期存在着无聊的关系。然而，电子书的出现引起了它们的心痛。图书馆知道，如果它们想保持自己存在的价值，就需要数字化的设备，但对于许多出版商而言，由于在盗版和失去销量问题上太过谨慎的态度，而不予合作。在最大的六家出版商中，只有兰登书屋和哈珀?柯林斯出版社授予了绝大多数图书馆电子书的许可。其它出版社或是拒绝了这项要求，或是在勉强进行试用。例如，在八月份，企鹅出版社将在纽约的公共图书馆开始试验。 Publishers are wise to be nervous. Owners of e-readers are exactly the customers they need: book-lovers with money (neither the devices nor broadband connections come cheap). If these wonderful people switch to borrowing e-books instead of buying them, what then? 出版商感到紧张是明智的。电子阅读器的所有者们恰恰是他们需要的顾客：有钱（而既不是设备或是便宜的宽带连接）的爱书人。如果这些了不起的人们由借阅电子书而变为购买电子书，将会怎样呢？ | 
