As reported this morning in Publishers Weekly, opens a new window, Baker & Taylor, a U.S.-based company that supplies books to schools, bookstores, and libraries—including Pima County Public Library—is ceasing operations after a failed acquisition by another company, ReaderLink. It has begun winding down service to clients and is expected to fully stop service in January 2026.
This issue is not specific to Pima County Public Library. It is a nationwide issue for all schools, bookstores, and libraries. Baker & Taylor is the largest supplier of library content, software and services to public and academic libraries in the U.S. This closure was not anticipated in the industry, so it comes as much a shock and disappointment to us as it does to you.
We want to be fully transparent with you, our valued readers. This shutdown will cause a delay in us getting the books you want. It affects more than 6,000 titles that we anticipated receiving over the next three months.
Our immediate course of action:
- Staff are already working to redistribute orders to other vendors.
- We will prioritize re-ordering books with holds and attempt to re-order the remaining titles.
- We can assure you that your holds and your place in the queue will not be affected.
- This will not affect audio or e-books, in fact we will increase digital materials to fill the gaps!
Please note:
- You may see the message "Availability details may be out of date. Please try again later." on some of your "on-order holds."
- If this happens, it means those materials were originally ordered through Baker & Taylor and we are in the process of ordering through another vendor.
- Once we order the item with a new vendor, that message will disappear. If the item(s) cannot be ordered through another vendor, the item(s) will be deleted and you will receive a hold cancellation notification.
Moving forward:
We will explore expanded contracts with other vendors and analyze staff capacity to change our business process.
We understand this situation is frustrating and we sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this challenging time. As always, we will stay in communication with you as more news unfolds.
