What's the Issue?

EBooks are a hot issue facing libraries today. As the technology and options explode, libraries are trying to find ways to best serve their patrons. Printed books traditionally graced the shelves of libraries that librarians meticulously maintained, but what will the surge in ebooks mean for the professional librarian's future?

In the summer of 2010, Library Journal and School Library Journal conducted an eBook survey for libraries. The survey measured current and projected ebook availability in libraries and users’ access preferences. Data indicated the following percentages of academic, school, and public libraries that offered their patrons ebooks and circulated preloaded ereading devices[1]:

	Offering eBooks	Circulating Preloaded eReading Devices
Academic Libraries	94%	12%
School Libraries	33%	6%
Public Libraries	72%	5%

The rising percentages of libraries offering ebooks surely indicates that it will likely - if not already - impact the profession as librarians work towards the accessibility of ebook content. This effort includes: technical complexity of ebooks; distribution of ebooks; cost of ebooks; adaptation of librarians’ skills; widening of the digital divide; and the comprehension of digital information over printed information.

Spolanka,  2011, February 9, blog entry, No shelf required, retrieved from http://www.libraries.wright.edu/noshelfrequired/2011/02/09/library-journal-publishes-library-ebook-survey-results-sample-data-here/

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[1]Preloaded ereading devices included: Kindle, SONY, iPad, and Nook (Spolanka, 2011)

An Alternative to Overdrive

The shift to eBooks and digital content has brought many changes to the library field. While many patrons have lauded the relative ease of using e-readers, many librarians have lamented the terms of eBook distribution. Even though eBook distributors have generally provided greater access to digital content, licensing terms and fees have grown increasingly restrictive. Consequently, some library systems and librarians have starting searching for alternatives (Albanese, 2011).

Possibly the most established alternative to eBook distributors is Open Library which is a part of the Internet Archive. The main goal of Open Library is to establish “one web page for every book ever published.” While Open Library admits that it is a very lofty goal they have gathered 20 million records. More importantly, Open Library offers free access to eBooks to anyone willing to create an account with their web site (Kniffel, 2012).

To offer eBooks to its users, Open Library has established a relationship with Overdrive and partner libraries throughout the United States.  The partnership with Overdrive is somewhat disappointing. Essentially, Open Library simply provides a link to the digital content owned by Overdrive. The user must search for their home library system and use their library card number to check out material. This method provides no advantage to users who use Open Library over those who use their home library’s link to Overdrive content (O’Leary, 2011).

The most meaningful way Open Library provides access to eBooks is partnerships with library systems. Partner libraries send Open Library books for digitization that are made available to all Open Library users. Many of the books sent to Open Library are older copies that have been weeded out of the partner libraries catalogue. To comply with copyright rules, the book is generally kept by Open Library or the partner library agrees to not re-enter the book into circulation. While the idea is certainly noteworthy, many patrons looking for recent content will be disappointed. Unfortunately, the lack of recent works is the biggest obstacle to the greater use of Open Library (O’Leary, 2011). Nonetheless, users searching for older manuscripts and older works will find an enormous selection of downloadable books.

In an effort to remain at the forefront of new eBook technologies, many libraries plunged into contracts with eBook distributors without realizing the implications caused by digital rights management. While the goals and access of Open Library are laudable, the site has yet to match the recent content provided by distributors like Overdrive. While in its present form, Open Library does not provide enough recent content for a library to replace Overdrive. Yet, the consortia approach to providing eBooks regardless of library system should serve as a model to help provide greater eBook access to patrons (Houghton, 2011).

References

Albanese, A. R. (2011). Brewster’s Millions. Publishers Weekly, 258(22), 33-37.

Houghton, S. (2011). Open Library offers libraries a third choice for eBooks. Librarian in Black. Retrieved March 19, 2012, from http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/2011/07/open-library-offers-libraries-a-third-choice-for-ebooks.html

Kniffel, L. (2012). Backed by Internet Archive, Entrepreneur takes on OCLC. American Libraries, 39(4), 27-29.

O’Leary, M. (2011). Open Library and the Gatekeepers. Information Today, 28(9), 22-23.

Technical Complexity of eBooks for Publishers & Libraries

eBook History
According to Lebert’s chronology, electronic books were originally created in 1971 from public domain that were typed and saved into ASCII standard, text-formatted files that were well suited for sharing on the Internet via hypertext markup language (2009, p. 5). By 1997, Project Gutenberg boasted 1,000 works on its web library .The format was open and readable by any computer hardware and software to bring to “everyone's disposal… as many literary works from public domain as possible for free." (Lebert, p. 5).

Publishers External Environment
Yet, with the established infrastructure of brick n mortar libraries, clubs, and stores, book publishers are protective of a profitable book business which depends on traditional supply chain from forecasting demand, print, production, wholesale, library, institutions, and retail developed over 100 years. The publishing industry alone includes 101,760 firms that depend on revenues from traditional book distribution (Hoovers, 2012). Still, publishers adapted to selling their commercial lists to online stores like Amazon after 1995; online sales led to discounted prices without the overhead of commercial real estate leases,eventually causing the demise of Borders’ national chain in 2011. Simultaneously, libraries were early adopters to technology to link online catalogs in union, manage intranets, and incorporate online professional databases into their journal collections.

Because of worldwide digitization via academic efforts and Google’s Print and Books projects, the share of non-digitized books in the public domain dwindled. And copyright amendments extended the number of years of protection (Lebert, p. 57) . Publishers‘ declared Google’s digitization of books under copyright illegal.

Publishers’ external environment was challenged by the Internet and the convenience of ebooks . To cope, publishers treated the ebook as a new format and issued digital rights to newly published, commercial works. Digital Rights Management evolved via the creation of proprietary encrypted formats to ensure collection and payment of royalties for the duplication, distribution and sale of each work. Intellectual property rights were secured using publishers’ existing processes based on the print book model. Proprietary software formats were created via partnership with technology companies to be read on proprietary device readers such as Adobe Reader, Glassbook Reader, the Peanut Reader, the Rocket eBook Reader, the Franklin Reader, the Cytale ebook reader, the Gemstar eBook Reader, and the Palm Reader (Lebert, 2009).

Myriad of Formats
The industry soon agreed via forum to simplify to an Open eBook (OeB) format upon which most software formats are compatible today (Lebert, p. 67). Regardless of the standards efforts, the commercialization of an ebook market by technology companies and publishers for resellers like Amazon & its Kindle reader, there are still a myriad of popular formats counting 31 formats across 13 of the most popular ereaders according to About.com (2010).


Appendix A: The eBook File Compatibility Chart

Kindle

Kindle 2 & 3

Kindle 4

Kindle DX

Sony Readers

Hanlin V3

Hanlin V5

IREX Iliads

IREX 1000

Nook

Alex

Nook Color

Kobo

ARG

AZW

Y

Y

Y

Y

BMP

Y***

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

CHM

Y

Y

DJVU

Y

Y

DNL

DOC

Y***

Y

Y

EPUB

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

FB2

Y

Y

GIF

Y***

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

HTML

Y***

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

JPG

Y***

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

LBR

LIT

Y

Y

LRF

Y

MOBI

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

OPF

PDB

Y

PDF

Y*1

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

PKG

PNG

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

PPT

Y

Y

PRC

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

PS

RTF

Y

TIF

Y

Y

Y

Y

TR2

TR3

TXT

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

Y

WOLF

Y

Y

XML

NOTE: The acronyms on the left refer to file extensions. A file called "War and Peace.txt" indicates that you have an electronic copy of the book War and Peace in "TXT" or "Plain text" format. Also, a "Y" in a box means that a device is compatible with the corresponding file format.
*The LRF extension is also sometimes known as BBeB or "Broad Band eBook."
*1-Available through Kindle firmware update 2.3.
**For Sony Reader owners: Sony's Readers indirectly support some files via conversion. Word (i.e. DOC) files are supported indirectly through Sony's eBook Library program, which will convert such files to RTF (your computer must have Microsoft Word installed).
***For Kindle owners: Unprotected versions of the following files can be sent to Amazon via your Kindle e-mail account ("name"@free.kindle.com) for conversion into the Kindle format: Microsoft Word (DOC), PDF, HTML, TXT, RTF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PRC and MOBI.
****Some "compatible" files won't run if they have DRM or copy protection.


Libraries & Publishers
In this new technology, the library profession must satisfy patrons who are outside or in any stage of adoption, acceptance or maturity of ebook reading Academic libraries are more format-agnostic because their clientele are researchers and students who are “captive audience that must complete required assignments with whatever resources the library provides” (Random Ramblings, Holley). However, public libraries must be more responsive to the user’s format request.

The library profession is challenged to convince publishers who have varying ebook licensing policies dependent on proprietary software and hardware to provide the fullest range and immediate download access. But publishers’ internal environment is challenged by absence of a profitable ebook model while maintaining current print operational infrastructure. Commercial publishers need transformative change and new technical talent to implement change before libraries’ needs can be met. Publishers’ costs to re-tool threaten their profitability and their future. Once cooperation can be met between publishers and libraries, libraries’ budgets must support the hefty requisite license for broad format access in publishers’ policies and production capabilities.

With 20 million ereaders in 2011 at an install base of just 8.7% from previous year book reading consumer and library patrons will expect access to any format ebook via their reader, tablet, mobile phone, computer, library resource or app.(Businessweek). Libraries must test for selection of readers that fit its organization’s budget and format compatibility. Likewise, libraries and publishers must co-develop lending policies that provide leadership toward adoption of ebooks, acquisition of content, through legal and technical innovation.

References

About.com. 2012 Retrieved from www.portables.about.com/b/2009/10/10/the-ebook-file-compatibility-chart.htm.

Business Week. EMarketer Digital Intelligence. May 25, 2011. Retrieved from http://bx.businessweek.com/multimedia-technologies/view?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emarketer.com%2FArticle.aspx%3FR%3D1008404

Holley, Bob. Random Ramblings – A Digital Dilemma for Public Libraries. January 1, 2011. Digital Commons, Wayne State University. Faculty Research Publications.

Hoovers. 2012 Retrieved from http://www.hoovers.com/industry/publishing/1461-1.html

Lebert, Marie. A Short History of eBooks. NEF, University of Toronto, 2009. Retrieved from www.etudes-francaises.net/dossiers/ebookEN.pdf.