ebooks in uk public libraries

Ebooks in UK public librariesHelen Leech

Surrey Library Service, and Shelf Free (www.shelffree.org.uk)

@helenleech

Half of all adults now own a smartphone (Ofcom 2013) One in four households now has a tablet (Ofcom 2013) 23% of Americans read an e-book in 2012 (Pew) We think seven out of ten Surrey residents has a device on

which they can e-read PwC think the ebook market is going to overtake the print

market by 2017 Charlie Redmayne of HarperCollins thinks the book market’s

going to settle at 50% digital (Telegraph) Around a fifth of library authorities in the UK are still NOT

offering e-books Surrey spends 2.6% of its bookfund on e-books

Some statistics

Most bestsellers are published by the Big Six: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House and Simon and Schuster

Only HarperCollins, Hachette and Random House “sell” to UK public libraries

HarperCollins has a controversial 26 loan limit

Random House only sells backstock

Our problem is…

Ebooks to us means…

Overdrive, Askews and Public Library Online (with WF Howes, Bolinda and Peters just entering the market)

Popular fiction and non-fiction – not e-audio One user, one loan Epub and pdf Digital Rights Management software is normally

Adobe Digital Editions… … which means no downloading on library

computers No integration with the catalogue. Third parties only

What’s Surrey doing that’s special?

E-book and e-reader awareness for staff “Which e-reader?” petting zoo and “help!”

sessions for the public Big Push staff promotion E-newsletter to 160k members Lending kobos to ex-mobile users

http://prezi.com/kc62gmbp1wc4/how-to-download-a-library-e-book-onto-your-e-reader/

Friction…

Overdrive arrives in the UK around 2009 Surrey libraries’ ebook collection launches in 2010

with a hugely successful campaign targetting commuters

“Anybody, anywhere” Overdrive’s controversial relationship with

Amazon Penguin, Random House withdraw from Overdrive Beginning of the Dark Age of e-lending

A little history of car-crash e-lending

Rise of the Society of Chief Librarians’ digital / ebook group

Discussions with the Publishers’ Association The Reading Agency’s digital marketing

initiative Shelf Free (www.shelffree.org.uk)

Help!

All Party Parliamentary Group October 2012 Random House release backstock November

2013 Sieghart Review April 2013 Sieghart pilots October 2013

Signs of a thaw

“A key recommendation was that a series of pilots be constructed to test remote elending, based on one user, one copy and that copy would deteriorate after an agreed number of loans. The pilots are intended to provide publishers, authors, agents and libraries with an evidence base to assess what happens to lending and purchasing behaviour in those areas.”

(Society of Chief Librarians and the Publishers Association InvitationTo Tender, September 2013)

What are the Sieghart pilots trying to find out?

National workshop in November EBLIDA campaign, supported by CILIP The rise of the tablet The rise of the app Library Management System developments

The future’s brightening

The rise of self-publishing Patron Driven Acquisition The ethics of using our customer data How much control we want over the

relationship with publishers Public Lending Right

We need to start talking about …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

Thank you!

Helen Leechshelffree@gmail.com

Shelffree.org.uk