They’re far from a household name, but if you’ve ever held a library book — cover protected by a mylar jacket, bar code on the side — it’s likely that you’ve encountered their work. After nearly two centuries, library supplier Baker & Taylor will officially cease operations in January. The news was first reported on by Publishers Weekly earlier this month. 

Baker & Taylor is the largest supplier of books and other content to libraries in the United States, according to the company’s website. That means libraries across the nation — including in Ohio, Michigan, Massachusetts, Iowa, Florida, Nebraska, California, and more — will likely experience continued delays in getting new release books onto shelves and into the hands of library patrons. 

According to B&T’s website, the company supplied books and other materials to over 5,000 libraries.

“I would say they probably had two-thirds to three-quarters of the market,” said Katy White, the associate director of New Jersey Library Association who worked at B&T for nearly two decades.

The closure announcement follows a period of financial hardship for B&T. In late September, an acquisition by book distributor ReaderLink fell apart. The company also experienced a ransomware attack in 2022.

One of the factors that helped Baker & Taylor become such a massive player in the library supply market was that it specialized in shelf-ready books. Unlike many retailers, as a distributor, books from B&T would come pre-protected with mylar dust sleeves, barcodes, RFID tags, and spine labels. B&T could also help with cataloguing services for libraries. In effect, it acted as a one-stop shop. 

White noted that another big selling point was their timeliness; Baker & Taylor could help libraries receive books that were shelf-ready on the same day those titles would be released in bookstores.

Competitors also provide these services, but they have a lot of work to fill the market share gaps left by B&T. It’s a matter of capacity, said Marshall Breeding, an independent consultant for libraries and other technology. 

“The largest player in an industry goes away. Can the others remaining fill that void quickly? How quickly can they take on new customers? Do they have the inventory to supply?” he said. “It's kind of a big void to fill, especially when that happened kind of suddenly.”

Major competitors in the space include Ingram Content Group - Library Services and Brodart. Amazon also launched a business hub for libraries earlier this summer. 

Kristin Palmer, senior manager of PR and communication at Ingram, said that the company has seen an uptick in outreach from libraries after B&T’s closure announcement and that they’re moving to expand resources amid this supply chain disruption.

“The library services world has been thrown a bit off balance with the recent closure,” she said in an email. “We’re investing in better onboarding, smarter metadata, and tailored solutions to help libraries serve their communities — and help publishers connect their books with readers … we’re also increasing stock across our U.S. distribution centers to help fill gaps and keep libraries supplied.”

One acquisitions assistant at Durham County Library in North Carolina, whose name is being withheld because they weren’t authorized to speak on behalf of their employer, said that it’s not their first time having to rely on purchases from local bookshops or Barnes & Noble to fill title requests; it’s just that it can be more of a pain when all of that processing and cataloging used to be done for you. 

It’s yet another headache for libraries at a time when they don’t need one. The Trump administration has attempted to gut the Institute of Museum and Library Services, a small agency that public libraries across the country rely on for funding. Libraries provide critical broadband access and act as a third space for many. 

It’s also a newer challenge for suppliers to break into the e-book and audiobook space, which is presently dominated by the company OverDrive and can be a costlier service for libraries to provide.

Still, consultant Marshall Breeding isn’t overly concerned about what the demise of Baker & Taylor means for book suppliers or libraries writ large. After all, libraries have had to pivot before — they can do so again.

“Having physical libraries, these beautiful spaces where individuals and families go in and they borrow books … to kind of engage with the library as a place to instill learning and reading and all those kind of good things — that's why, to me, it seems like the physical library and print books are really so important to maintain and and have them prosper over time,” said Breeding.