Ebook survey preliminary responses

So far, there have been over 100 responses to our survey about the possibilities for ebooks at the Hutchinson Public Library.  As far as surveys go, that's quite a large number for us without even working to drum up responses.

Here's a summary of the responses so far:

• 29% of the respondents already own an ebook reader of some sort, while 71% do not.
• 55% of respondents indicated they will be buying a reader this year or next, while 27% indicated they had no plans to buy one.
• 83% of respondents indicating they already owned or would be buying an ebook reader stated that they would borrow ebooks from HPL were they available.
• 86% of respondents indicated they didn't care what format they received (paper or ebook) as long as it helped shorten holds lists.
• 6% of respondents did not want to use an ebook reader at all.

What does this information mean for us?  The raw numbers indicate that the opinion of the HPL users is we should move forward with the experiment.  However, I am worried about some of the comments in the "tell us your opinion about ebooks" area at the end of the survey.  Not because they are negative.  On the contrary, the comments are quite positive.  But there is a lot of misunderstanding about how ebook checkout will work here.  Chief among these is that it is clear people do not understand that buying a Kindle ties them to purchase books from Amazon.  There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but people will be disappointed when they are unable to checkout ebooks from the library because of the reader they have chosen.

Here is a quick comparison of "major" name ebook readers and their abilities (detailed comparison here):

Sony Pocket Edition - .epub, .html, .pdf, .txt files, plus compatible with the Library's OverDrive service.
B&N nook - .epub, .pdb, .pdf, .mp3, plus compatible with the Library's OverDrive service.
Pandigital Novel - .epub support, plus compatible with the Library's OverDrive service.
Amazon Kindle - .azw support NOT compatible with the Library's OverDrive service.
Apple iPad -  .... .epub, .pdf support NOT compatible with the Library's OverDrive service.

Interesting to note, the Pandigital and Apple devices have color screens which would be ideally suited to viewing things like children's picture books.  With the variety of formats, proprietary systems battles, and the enormous number of devices just on the horizon, this roiling sea of choices is what we must navigate.