Less than a year after launching its pilot book with the Minotaur Press imprint, Macmillan officials today confirmed that it will expand its library e-book offerings to include an entire e-book backlist with more than 11,000 titles. Alison Lazarus, president of Macmillan's sales division, confirmed the news with The Guardian, saying the decision to expand library lending was made as part of the publisher's "ongoing evaluation of e-lending."

Frontlist titles will not be included in the program now. Titles will be available to libraries through OverDrive, 3M and Baker & Taylor, and Recorded Books also. There were no reported changes in the model or pricing. Once purchased by a library, e-book titles will be available for lending up to two years or 52 lends, whichever comes first, and titles in the pilot were priced at $25.

The expansion is more good news for libraries in the e-book realm. Matt Tempelis, 3M cloud library global business manager said the company was excited about Macmillan's decision to expand access.

"As you know, 3M has been involved in multiple pilots expanding publisher access and reach into library," Temeplis told The Guardian. "For 3M and our customers, it is more confirmation that the library digital lending business is accretive to publisher sales and margins."

The Macmillan news is the latest expansion in library e-book lending in a year that has seen something of a breakthrough in icy publisher/library relations over e-books. Last month Penguin announced that it had reinstated more than 17,000 titles for lending through OverDrive. In May 2012, Hachette opened its entire catalog for lending. In April, Simon & Schuster, the final holdout in the library e-book market, launched a pilot with vendors 3M and Baker &Taylor.

Random House, whose e-book lending remains separate from Penguin following the merger of the two companies, continues to offer its entire catalog for "perpetual access" at a higher price to libraries, while Harper Collins offers its e-books for around the same price as print, but for a 26-lend period before books must be re-purchased.