e-Books vs. Print Books

[Insert maniacal laughter here] I find a sense of shadenfreude in this New Republic article about reading.  The person being interviewed has been gathering evidence, other than anecdotal, about reading and the use of electronic books versus paper (or "traditional") books.

Turns out that there seems to be a host of component factors to reading that are unsatisfied by reading on a screen. There has been a slowing of ebook sales in the past 5-6 quarters that have puzzled publishers, pundits, and others alike. Why haven't ebooks continued their meteoric rise?

I've wondered about this before and it's good to see someone look at this issue with a certain amount of diligence. I've always thought, with nothing empirical to back it up, that people become distracted when using a device to read versus a paper book. As the article above states, the book provides immediate feedback AND you can't just "quickly" check Facebook.

Anyway, maybe it will turn out that "I told you so" and ebooks will be just another medium for delivering information. They have shortcomings and strengths just like any other medium. To me, it makes sense that ebooks will fill the needs better than paper for some purposes and vice versa. And the best part is that libraries will still be here to help you find what you need. [Insert more maniacal laughter].

Where are ebooks headed?

I don't think anyone really knows what's happening in the ebook world. The sales of ebooks plateaued in 2015 and no one really knows if that was a pause or the peak. My thought is that with about 1/4 of the total book sales, ebooks probably haven't reached their peak yet. I do think that the future for them is very uncertain, as is the future of ebooks in libraries.

I say this because the big, mainstream of the ebook publishing world seem to be satisfied with selling ebooks as if their potential to be something more than their paper counterparts isn't worth pursuing. Think about what you could do with ebooks. At the very minimum, like digital versions of movies, you could have added features, interviews with the author, etc. Things that are not possible in paper.

Libraries need to figure out ways around the stranglehold ebook publishers have on them. After all, history has shown that libraries are one of the main places for people to try out, with very low or no risk, new authors, new media, etc. I maintain that publishers are shooting themselves in the foot and driving the growth in the the independent and self-published ebook explosion by making library acquisition of ebooks so clunky and restricted.

Libraries could be the biggest and cheapest sales force a publisher could want. Librarians like reading, we like sharing, and we promote by word-of-mouth the good stuff, the new stuff, the overlooked stuff. It's like having an army of volunteer sales people. Because readers buy the books they like. If they find a new author in a library and they come to love that author, they'll start buying that author's new material rather than wait to borrow. It happened years before ebooks were even remotely a thing.

What got me ranting about this old topic again? This article, which is a pretty good article from American Libraries magazine with the opinions of four experts in the field. I'd recommend a read.

E-books and reading

This is something I have long wondered about: will e-books ever "eclipse" print books as the medium of choice?

So many different types of media have come into the mainstream and then become "just another option" or simply faded away when superseded by another medium.

This article from the New York Times seems to indicate that the frenzy for e-books might be cooling. That might mean that at least in libraries e-books, like any other new media, will simply be assimilated into the collection. I personally think that the more ways we can have to share ideas with each other, the better.

I could be smug and say, "I told you so!" and that I thought e-books were a fad or something. But I would be lying if I said that I really thought print books were never in danger of disappearing. There have been moments, especially with the sustained media frenzy over e-books, that I thought the tide had risen too high for print. And, of course, print still might disappear someday. The information about sales in the NYT article seems to indicate though that print books, book stores, and libraries might still have a place in society and an important one at that.

Free Downloadable Magazines

The Hutchinson Public Library is now offering free downloadable magazines. All you need is your library card! The service is available here on the library's website.

These are not some strange magazines you've never heard of or digest versions missing content. On the contrary they are popular, everyday journals and magazines that you know and are in an easy-to-use format. Check them out!

Teens and Reading

Lots of interesting food for thought in this Nielsen survey: Nielsen Books and Consumers U.S.

The teaser is that despite their growing up with technology as much a part of their lives as anything else, teens lag behind other age groups in ebook purchasing. There are a number of reasons posited for this seemingly strange result. Among them are obvious ones, such as teens are much less likely to have credit cards with which to buy econtent. I think this is a bit of a stretch though, considering every teen I know uses a parent's card or gift cards to Amazon or iTunes for digital content. Another theory is that teens share a lot of books and that is MUCH easier to do with a printed book than with econtent. This seems more plausible to me. It makes me wonder though what more we could be doing as a library to cater to the reading tastes of teens. How can we be more responsive in our collection development and reach out to these younger readers in the same way we've traditionally reached out to other groups of readers.

Library ebook rights

Sadly, I doubt even this baby step could ever happen in the US, but there is an interesting case working through the EU courts right now involving a copyright case in Germany. It is far from resolved, but the issue is whether or not libraries in Europe can digitize books and offer them electronically.

Here is an article summarizing what's happening.

Basically, the argument is that because of the way EU copyright law is written, libraries can digitize a book in their collection and then make it available to the public on "designated" terminals in the library. The result is that if a patron makes a copy to a flash drive or emails it to themselves or otherwise creates a copy, then responsibility is on the patron, not the library for any copyright violation.

That is a big legal issue, but not much of a convenience, usability, or "freeing of information" issue for people or libraries. The solution to this problem is a payment model that allows sharing of copyrighted information while providing compensation to the intellectual property creators and owners. That is a pipe dream at this point in the process, but it could happen some day - in fact something MUST happen. The person who figures it out will be the equivalent of the creator of the printing press, in my opinion.

Paper v. Screen

Image from the American Library Association website

A couple of studies have been done recently regarding reading comprehension and reading from a paper source or an electronic source. This study from Norway looked at 10th graders and found that information read from a paper source creates a deeper level of understanding and is retained for longer.

It will be interesting to see where this goes if results can be replicated elsewhere. There is a massive shift going on currently with text books. Many schools are shifting to digital-only distribution of materials to students. As you know if you've read more of my rambling entries on this blog, I am no luddite. I enjoy technology and the clever and inventive ways libraries and librarians put it to use. But I have to wonder if it will turn out that ebooks and their ilk will, rather than supplant, end up coexisting with their ancient counterpart, the paper book

Compelling Arguments

In the ongoing transformation of libraries from information storehouses to community hubs (or whatever other speculative "end result" at which you might want to try and guess), the great fear expressed by many has been that libraries will disappear altogether.

My personal opinion is that public libraries will continue to evolve as they have for the past 180+ years in the United States. Libraries have always been a place to find information. Likewise, they have been a refuge for the resource-poor patron, the self-motivated scholar, the curious and the beginning reader( of all ages). I think libraries will continue to fill these roles even as they add services to cater to the technological whims of the day.

One day the eBook world will settle down and the walled collections of eMaterials that publishers have built will be opened for sharing in some fair and equitable way. I really think that there is a place where consumers, creators, and publishers can all find common ground and be fairly compensated and well-served.

All this rambling and digression to point your attention to this well-written article from the IT trends blog at a company called Laserfiche. To summarize, it presents the argument that paperless should not mean libraryless.. I think this quote is key and is something we're trying to work toward at HPL:"Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era - the language of technology."

We'll see how well HPL can adjust, but we will continue to grapple with our transformation into a place where patrons can come to get answers to whatever questions they may have. Specifically a place they can come to get answers not found simply in a book or other resource but that may require learning a new tool or building a new skill through interaction with a friendly, knowledgeable staff member.

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

 

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

“Today, many people use their local library to learn a new language for a new era—the language of technology.” - See more at: http://simplicity.laserfiche.com/content/saving-our-public-libraries-paperless-world#sthash.hUvZ0PJV.dpuf

eBook Sales Decline?

That seems like an exaggeration to me, but the numbers show a dramatic slow-down in the pace of sales increases. This article from Slate by author Robert Rosenberger is a fascinating read. From the article, the most plausible speculation as to why this is happening is the rise in tablet computing. The dedicated ereader has fallen by the wayside as tablets have become more affordable. Compared to a dedicated ebook reader, tablets offer a tremendous variety of things to do BESIDES read.

So, are people simply reading less altogether? The article doesn't delve into this much, but I can tell you that while foot traffic in our library has never been greater, paper book circulation has declined over the past 12 months. eBook circulation here is still in its infancy due to the slow growth of the collection and the ridiculous tactics of big publishers and their treatment of public libraries.

Public library problems aside, the notion that reading at length is declining is a very scary prospect. Will Rogers, I think, gave us this thought about reading / learning:

There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

I hope the Slate article does not turn out to mean that the latter group is growing - that's not a good thing. But I wonder what this means for all the money we've been pouring into ebooks.

Library as Publisher?

This is a great idea. I don't know how to make it happen here in Hutchinson, Kansas, but I'm keen to try and figure it out. Library as publisher.

Libraries continue to experience high use but with ever-shrinking revenue streams. How can we continue to fulfill our mission to build life-long learners if we don't have resources to purchase books and materials to support that mission?

I wonder if it isn't in the way of the ancient idea of "library". Libraries were once not only collectors of knowledge, they fostered it by sponsoring the creators of new ideas. That is what is proposed in this article from ALA about the library discovering new authors and helping them to blossom.

I doubt very much that HPL could muster the resources in equipment and staff to make this happen on our own, but there might be a possibility for a consortium of libraries to pool resources and help turn the explosion of self-published ebooks become an explosion of really high-quality ebooks.
(Thanks for the link Sandra!)