Southeastern Massachusetts Library SystemContinuing Education Program

E-books in the Library

Presented by Kathy LussierSEMLS Assistant Administrator for

Technology

E-books in the Library Overview of E-Books and Devices

How Libraries Are Using E-Books

Challenges for Libraries

OVERVIEW OF E-BOOKS & DEVICES

Gemstar E-book Reader

•In 2001, SEMLS purchased these devices for public libraries in the region to introduce new technology to staff.•8MB – enough to hold 20 novels.•Weighs only 18 ounces!

Early E-Reader Complaints

Expensive

Heavy

Difficult to read in direct light

It’s another device to carry around

After the Early E-Readers

Advantages of E-Ink

•Longer battery life

•Easy to read in direct light / less eyestrain

Sony Reader Released in 2006

And Then Came the Kindle

It’s All About the Easy, Wireless Downloads

E-Reader Market

Christian Science Monitor, December 30, 2009

What We See In These Readers

E Ink – Easier on the eyes and less drain on the battery.

Wireless downloading is desirable feature. Support for ePub format is plus for libraries. Read-aloud feature in Kindle. One-time lending allowed with Nook. Newer readers incorporating touch screens. Readers keep adding functionality: play MP3

files, browse the Web, work with documents.

E-Book Sales Starting to See Success

The Guardian, December 28, 2009

Future Directions (Color)

Color E-Ink

Mirasol Color Panels

Colors still are not as vibrant as LCD display.

Do We Need E Ink to Read Books?

Lag Time Between Page Turns

Less “Touch” Sensitivity

Color displays still aren’t as vibrant as LCD.

The Complaint About Reading Off a Screen

The amount of time people in the industrialized world spend reading text off a screen has long since nullified this complaint. Literally billions of people have proven that they're willing and able to read huge volumes of text off absolutely horrible screens.

John Siracusa, “The once and future e-book: on reading in the digital age,” ars technica, 2/1/2009

The Peanut Press Model

Peanut Press (later eReader.com and now Fictionwise) saw that a large segment of the population owned Palm devices and decided to create e-reader software for devices people already owned.

There’s An App for That

There have been more downloads of iPhone eBook apps than there are Kindles and Sony Readers combined.

Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester Research7/8/2009

LIBRARIES AND E-BOOKS

Lend Kindles, Nooks and Sony Readers pre-loaded with books.

Lend iPods and MP3s pre-loaded with audio books.

Lending Devices

Disclaimer

Lending E-Readers…

Provides users with an opportunity to try out new technology.

Places the library as a technology leader in the community.

Allows users to carry many titles on one device (great for travel!)

Provides an option for users who prefer an electronic format.

Some things to try… E-readers with a theme (mystery,

adventure, romance.)

Provide front-line staff with authority to make point-of-request purchases for e-reader.

Providing Downloadable E-books & Audiobooks

Does not require a trip to the library.

Patrons can use preferred device (sort of.)

Libraries maintain focus on content.

Problems With Downloadable Content

Limited selection Overdrive: more than 300,000 e-book, audiobook,

and music titles. Kindle: more than 360,000 e-book titles. Nook: more than 1 million e-book titles.

Separate software download required File formats may not play on preferred device. Almost no convenient wireless downloading.

Overdrive’s Android App

Finally, a way to download an audiobook from your library directly to your phone.

Goal is to provide easy and convenient access to library’s Overdrive collection.

How Does It Work?

A step forward, but it still needs work.

Fisher-Watkins Library, Cushing Academy

Fisher-Watkins Library, Cushing Academy

School replaced nearly all of the 20,000-volume collection with a collection of electronic books.

68 e-readers are available (NPR, All Things Considered, November 9, 2009)

Purchased a large collection of e-books and e-resources.

Two Weeks Into a Pilot Project at Princeton

The Daily Princetonian, 9/28/09

Let’s learn from the Cushing Academy experiment and find out what worked and what didn’t as we enhance our own electronic collections.

CHALLENGES FOR LIBRARIES

What Consumers Like

Convenient (from anywhere) and easy (wireless) downloads of materials.

A variety of titles to choose from. Some are happy to try out new

technology with the library’s devices, but others prefer to use their own device.

In An Ideal World…

The library is able to purchase any title published in electronic format at the same price the average consumer pays and makes it available so that consumers can access it directly from their device. The file will work on whichever device is preferred by the consumer.

Hold On to Right of First Sale

“E-Book Economics: Are Libraries Screwed?” by Tim Spaulding of LibraryThing:http://tinyurl.com/ydntv9c

For libraries to maintain their value in the community, we need to be able to get multiple uses out of one purchase, and that purchase needs to be the same price that a consumer pays.

BookServer

BookServer - http://www.archive.org/bookserver - is an open architecture for finding, selling, and lending e-books over the Internet.

What will make publishers and booksellers buy into this system?

Role for Library Explore these new formats and make

them available to your users. Push vendors to improve products so

that they are as easy to use as e-books available to the general consumer.

Advocate for a model that keeps “right of first sale” in tact. Do not rely on the market to come up with this solution for you.