Yesterday, controversy broke out on Twitter over the topic of today’s #followreader chat – How Can Libraries Increase E-Book Adoption? - and it looks like sparks may fly from 4-5pm ET.
Some people challeged the implication that libraries should encourage e-book adoption, arguing that the licensing terms on which distributors and publishers offer e-books to libraries are not fair. (For more background on the tensions between publishers and libraries regarding e-books, check out this post by Eric Hellman about Macmillian CEO John Sargent’s view of the issues.)
Others, like Tim Spalding at LibraryThing, went much further, arguing on his blog that e-books could bring about the demise of public libraries entirely. (Those in publishing will recognize Tim’s argument as a variation on publishing consultant Mike Shatzkin’s gloomy prognostication that e-books will bring down independent bookstores are we know them.)
Here’s the nut of Tim’s post:
Libraries–from the library of Alexandria to the “social libraries” that preceded public libraries–came about because of the value of aggregation. And contemporary libraries are in large part valuable for the same reasons. They are:
1. Bringing physical items together makes access easier than having books spread all around.
2. A library can allow many people to use an item many times for the same price a person would pay for a single use.Ebooks undermine 1 in their digial form. There’s no getting around this. It may be good for the world, but it isn’t good for physical libraries.
Ebooks undermine 2 in their terms. Few will say it openly, but publishers have never liked selling books to libraries, at least when it canibalized sales to consumers. They don’t like that almost a half of all book reading is provided by libraries although libraries account for only 4% of their sales. For similar reasons, publishers dislike personal lending, donations and the used book market.
But what about the idea that to stay relevant in the 21st century, libraries have to make it part of their mission to increase technological literacy, as librarian and tech activist Bobbi Newman, believes? (Watch her cool slideshow on libraries and transliteracy here).
And wouldn’t it be constructive to try to define new e-book licensing models for libraries that also make sense for publishers?
We’ll be getting into all sides of this debate today at 4pm ET. Here are the details on how to participate in the chat, and more about Bobbi Newman (@librarianbyday), who will join me (@charabbott) in leading today’s discussion.
See you there!
I will try to be short – but there is alot to say on this:
The library as a place that houses books and lets you borrow and return them, while being paid for via taxes and endowments cannot survive in a future heavily reliant on e-books. I think that is a fact – but that makes a few assumptions that I don’t agree with.
1) Not all books will become digital. Print media will always exist. It will shrink in the future, but it will take 25 years before we see big publishers dropping physical distribution of major titles.
2) Libraries do so much more than house/rent books. Some smaller libraries may not offer much more, but my local library offers live entertainment once a week, book readings for children (could easily happen on an iPad), resume building classes, free internet access, and above all else – information. My librarians are the best people to ask for book recommendations or to help with researching a specific topic.
More and more, librarians are getting a degree in library sciences which teaches them metadata collection/standards, research tactics, as well as a slew of other topics that gear them to run the libraries of the future that will thrive no matter what format the books are in.
-Nick Ruffilo
I think we may be overstating the case. As the cliche goes: “Truth is stranger than fiction.” When the internet hit the scene, people speculated how books would become obsolete in a few years. However, the Atlantic Monthly featured an interview with Peter Drucker who commented: “Who would have ever thought that electronic media would be the catalyst to sell print books (e.g. Amazon.com)?” (my paraphrase)…
True, it looks as if we are closer to the reality of the demise of paper-ink books. However, I’ve noticed an interesting paradox (anecdotal to be certain): the explosion of the blank journal market. Why are people buying these things? Why hasn’t the laptop and word processing replaced them after nearly 3 decades of existence?
The book may be on the way out, but in the words of Mark Twain, “The report of my death has been greatly exaggerated.”
[...] eBook (non) user I participated last week in an online chat via Twitter about eBooks put on by Follow the Reader. Something I wrote then, and thought bore repeating is as follows, succinctly summarized in one [...]
Ebooks will only increase the gap between libraries users and other readers.
In brief, my opinion is: People who are actually attending libraries will continue to do it because of services offered, not for free reading only. But people not used to libraries or who don’t appreciate services offered, will increasingly not attend libraries.
[...] of E-Books Still Like Print Too, Survey Shows. Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, Wall Street Journal. Will E-Books Really Destroy Libraries?. Charlotte Abbott, Follow the Reader. The future of libraries, with or without books. John D. Sutter, CNN Welcome to the library. Say [...]