E-books and Libraries

[alanajoli]

Given the amount of library reading I do, I know that libraries in my area have a long way to go to keep up with the type of reading that I do digitally. It's no problem since I still like print, but there are plenty of books I'd rather carry around digitally. Recently, I actually ended up purchasing a book I had out on Interlibrary Loan (ILL) because I wasn't going to finish it by the due date, in part because the print edition was a little unwieldy (the hardcover did not fit in my purse for convenient reading-on-the-go, and I do try to carry around a hardcover-sized purse). A few years ago I was delighted that several of the books I needed to read for the Mythopoeic Fantasy Awards jury were available digitally through the library, but lately, I've not had as much luck. Partly I'm not looking as hard, but I'm sure it's also partly because the e-book/library connection is in a state of flux.

Publishers just aren't sure what to do about libraries and e-books, and Amazon seems to have exacerbated the problem. Random House, happily, has committed to continuing to make e-books available to libraries (according to Andrew Albanese of PW). But to do this, it's raising its prices. There was talk at one point of putting restrictions on the number of loans an e-book could go through in order to make the e-book comparable to a hardcover, which eventually does break down after too-many reads. They've moved away from that, which does make the decision a bit of a relief, even if it means higher pricing.

On the bad news front, Penguin has decided to completely sever its relationship with library e-book lending platform OverDrive. According to PW's Calvin Reed, a lot of Penguin's reaction seems to come from concerns about Amazon -- and it looks like they're generally uncomfortable with Penguin books being on the Cloud instead of downloaded. I understand concerns about Amazon, but severing ties with libraries seems to be the opposite of helping manage the e-book marketplace in a way that benefits readers, who are all potential consumers.

Making e-books too controlled, whether it's through too much DRM or by not making them available to certain populations, seems to me to be the wrong way to manage the shifting marketplace. But the flux will eventually settle, and hopefully the end result will be that frequent readers like me will be able to access plenty of e-books to read, whether for purchase or on loan.

Comments

[cerebralpaladin.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, the legacy publishers are often crazy, and if they could ban ordinary hard-copy libraries, they mostly would, even though that would be destructive. On the other hand, the trouble with e-books in libraries is that it really points out the lack of scarcity. Why buy any books in e-book format if you can get them from the library in e-book format from the privacy of your own home, whenever you like? You can gate them in various ways (only one person can have this book available at a time), but those are inherently artificial and frustrating with e-books--it's obvious that "the copy" isn't actually checked out. As e-books become the standard and hard-copy books the exception, which appears inevitable, I think figuring out how libraries ought to work will become increasingly complicated and challenging.

[alanajoli.livejournal.com]

I agree that libraries have a lot of figuring out where they fit in the digital world. What encourages me about that is how much I saw librarians thinking about those issues while I was working in a library (and on a listserv or two). In fact, I think the people working in libraries (some of them, at least) are more on the ball trying to keep up with innovations and change than many of the traditional publishers...

That said, I actually think the DRM on library e-books makes a ton of sense, and it hasn't bothered me as a user at all. I get an e-book on loan for two weeks? Four weeks? Then it corrupts itself if I don't hit the "return" button? That's logical -- it's the best way to mimic a library loan. On the other hand, it might be more reasonable to expect e-books to go the way of streaming media services, but figuring out who pays for the services -- keeping a public library public -- would be a huge challenge...

Just random thoughts on this. I don't feel as though I have much foresight -- just a lot of ideas on how things are currently shaped. :)