Alan Inouye
Digital Content and Ebooks, Happenings and Thoughts beyond the Library Walls
Recent Phenomenon – The Internet is only 20 years old. Mass adoption of eBooks is only in the last few years.
Collections – We used to have total control, now we share control. We no longer choose all the eBooks. We can’t always access it. We can’t archive it. Privacy, the borrowing records and what they’re reading is under someone’s control.
We have to collaborate, be flexible, understand that we’ll be in a totally different place in 5 years.
Revisit Your Mission – Should drive lending practices, we have skills, expertise, reputational capital, thousands of outlets. Work to our strengths to serve communities.
Direct Communication with Publishers. Met with 5 publishers. Delegation is meeting with different intermediaries. Communication will dirve to mutually agreeable solution.
Tom Peters
Revolution! More than getting just the big 6 publishers to sell/lease their stuff to us.
Multiple Concurrent Revolutions
7 billion people, 6 billion cell phones. 90% of us.
eContent focuses on experiences rather than products. Why bookselling is dying.
Reading -- will it ever become collaborative. Will authors change what they do?
Settle Old Scores
Many publishers never liked the library lending model. Many tech companies don't care about us.
Libraries Over-purchased Print
Inneficiencies, flaws, in print distribution system, no cooperative collection development.
Basic Affordance of eContent
It has the pure potential to become an absolutely non-rivalrous public good. Unlimited perfect copies to evryone anytime anywhere where 1 person's use doesn't preclude another's. But when.
eReader is a Complete Thing
Content, reading device, place etc.
Stakeholders
Authors & Readers, says Amazon. There must be an intermediary.
Goodbye, Big 6 Hello Big 3 (Maybe 4)
Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Google Books.
Can they thrive by selling exclusively to end users with few sales to libraris and other instutions. How will this affect distribution?
Where Should Libraries Focus?
Get rid of that hold list!
Best Bets for Libraries
Protest/boycott. Talk with publishers, etailers. Sue? Legislate may be the answer, since libraries are important for a democratic society.
Developments
CALIFA is doing an owned-in-perpetuity eBook service, like Douglas County.
US Dept of Justice Threatened Lawsuit vs the big 5/6 and Apple.
Lisa Hickman, Dzanc Books
Challengers:
eBook Acquisition, hosting, and delivery. 3 nightmares.
Ownership
Buying eBooks -- circ control, ability to move to different platforms, integrate to catalog, preserve them, cost effective, positive user experience.
Leasing eBooks -- More expensive. Ease of integration when someone else receives, catalogs, and delivers eBook. Contract expiration means books may disappear.
Distribution
OverDrive, 3M Cloud, Freading, My Library. Patron checkout from anywhere, eBooks, removed automatically. Lease only.
Problems
Personal information demanded, frequent website crashes, long waits, expensive for libraries, circulation & cost not regulated.
eBooks in 2011
35 million checked out, 17 million holds, eBook sales exceeded books, 17% increase in sales.
2009 2%, 2010 5%, 2011-2012 29% increase in ownership.
eBook circulation is increasing while print is declining (17% in Douglas County)
Publishers & Libraries want to get books to the reader. Libraries help sell books (10,000 people clicked on "buy now" link that Douglas County is trying out) 50% of users go onto purchase books by author they were introduced to in the library (LJ)
Publishers Can Be Distributors
Everyone is in crisis. We need to get together and work this out.
Dzanc distributes directly to library. Own content, integrate titles, contracts based on need, all devices, cost effective. Works out well for publisher with "buy now" and they automatically increase copies in holds.
Complicated Questions!
Communities need libraries, we need technology. The majority of consumption will be electronic in the coming decades. How can we provide and provide a place to create content. We could be on the verge of renaissance.
We need new solutions that are practical and it has to come soon. We want to help. We just need to know what to do. Apply what we already do to a new milieu. We could help create a new infrastructure, and be in control of it. Has to tie into mission, honor budget.
We need transparency, control, effective leadership...all leading to an elegant, intuitive, low maintenance interface for acquisitions, access, and distribution...pricing and licensing fairness that is clear and flexible. We need something as good as Amazon & Netflix. Urgently.
Get in touch with Library Renewal to lead, control, and implement a solution for this. Lots of volunteers, board, outside experts (legal, tech, business, etc.) Market analysis for fair pricing. Etc! Library eContent Alliance.
Q&A
Can Libraries Get directly to authors? Maybe so, research shows that authors want to work with libraries and would actually get more money/book this way. Publishers are agents of discovery and insist on DRM, which we could cohesively approach from an educational platform. Some providers are becoming publishers, like Amazon.
Where are the Reviews? Dzanc has reviews for each title. But this is a problem.
