I don't understand why can't they donate the books somewhere. Even if they don't want to share the scans, why not give up the books?
There's a general sense that librarians are preservationists. This is far from the truth. Most books get pulped within a few years of printing. Librarians are constantly discarding books that don't get checked out to make space for new books.
The book ceases to be a book right at the beginning of the extractive process.
It's not as though they particularly care, and it's not as though bad press matters with a captured regulatory environment.