1. Libraries let people read your books.

I know, I know, you think that if it weren’t for libraries more people would buy your books, I have bad news for you, if it weren’t for libraries people would read less not buy more books. There is no guarantee that the people who read a library copy could, or would, choose to buy your book. Let’s face it no one who is willing spend  4 months  on the waiting list for their favorite author is going to buy that hardback copy and probably not the trade paperback or paperback either (have you seen the price of mass market paperbacks lately?). Instead of seeing that library book as money out of your pocket consider it another book sold that wouldn’t have been and more importantly consider it the gateway drug to your author.  Millions of people discover their new favorite author through their local library.

2.  Libraries introduce people to your books

For children we are a magical place where they can check out 20 or 50 books a week and take them home to read or for parents to read those books. We do story times and other educational and fun programs for children instilling a life long love of reading. This wouldn’t happen anywhere else. Without this introduction to books at an early age you would not have so many adult customers.

As adults its called Readers Advisory. It’s that thing we do when someone comes to us and says they’d like something to read. For the record we do it better than Amazon, because we’re real people who listen and read too, not some formula. Let’s face it you need readers advisory because people ( especially in this economy) aren’t willing to gamble money on a new author.

3. We celebrate books and authors everyday, all year long.

Book clubs, displays and more!  We throw these huge parties celebrating your books and your authors at our libraries. We encourage others to read your books, buying multiple copies, and then we sit around talking about them for hours. We create displays to promote your books helping more people discover them. All of this leads to sales.

4. Archives

We keep copies of your older books that the bookstores have sold at discount prices or gotten rid of. We will buy additional copies when the ones we have get old or lost or stolen.

5. Publicity

Yes we’ve already covered readers advisory, book clubs and story times but what about, newsletters, new books, returned books. We also do huge city-wide read-a-longs in our communities, invite authors for readings and signings. With the predicted death of physical bookstores you’re really going to need a place to host those authors signings, especially in the smaller towns.

6. We WANT to buy your books.

In the day and age when you are so worried about piracy, we are offering to pay and we are offering a reasonable method for people to read your books without piracy. We’ve even agreed to your ridiculous anti-piracy methods that make the process cumbersome and frustrating for everyone.

7. We love books too.

Sure not for the same reasons you do, but we want there to be a future for books too.

8. Who else is going to pay those ridiculously high database and journal prices?

Not the general public or the students. The library can barely afford them, you’re raking us over the coals here guys.

9. Library users are your best customers. 

Yep, its true. A recent study by Library Journal and Bowker PubTrack Consumer reports

Our data show that over 50% of all library users report purchasing books by an author they were introduced to in the library,” Miller noted. “This debunks the myth that when a library buys a book the publisher loses future sales. Instead, it confirms that the public library does not only incubate and support literacy, as is well understood in our culture, but it is an active partner with the publishing industry in building the book market, not to mention the burgeoning e-book market.

Don’t forget the white paper released by OverDrive on How eBook Catalogs at Public Libraries Drive Publishers’ Book Sales and Profits

Read More

• Open question: Do libraries help or hurt publishing?
• Publishers & Librarians: Two Cultures, One Goal

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• Top Ten Links 2.3 – All About Ebooks
• The future of the book – Possible or Probable
• Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library – Updated

image by Andy Woodworth

Yesterday the big news online was Penguin Groups decision to withhold new titles from OverDrive, meaning new Penguin titles are no longer available for library patrons to check out. Additionally Penguin has requested that OverDrive no longer allow library patrons to check out existing Penguin titles on Kindle devices and apps.

Penguin’s Official Statement emphasis added by me

Penguin has been a long-time supporter of libraries with both physical and digital editions of our books.  We have always placed a high value on the role that libraries can play in connecting our authors with our readers. However, due to new concerns about the security of our digital editions, we find it necessary to delay the availability of our new titles in the digital format while we resolve these concerns with our business partners. Penguin’s aim is to always connect writers and readers, and with that goal in mind, we remain committed to working closely with our business partners and the library community to forge a distribution model that is secure and viable. In the meantime, we want to assure you that physical editions of our new titles will continue to be available in libraries everywhere.

OverDrive’s Official Statement (which of course came after the Penguin statement because OverDrive always responses late, sorry guys but you do) again emphasis added by me.

Last week Penguin sent notice to OverDrive that it is reviewing terms for library lending of their eBooks.   In the interim, OverDrive was instructed to suspend availability of new Penguin eBook titles from our library catalog and disable “Get for Kindle”  functionality for all Penguin eBooks.   We apologize for this abrupt change in terms from this supplier.  We are actively working with Penguin on this issue and are hopeful Penguin will agree to restore access to their new titles and Kindle availability as soon as possible.

All existing Penguin eBook titles in your library’s catalog are still available and additional copies can be added.

Honestly I just don’t understand this. As Kate Sheehan puts in on Twitter

You don’t have to work with libraries, but if you’re not going to, at least give us a reason that isn’t insulting to our intelligence.

Penguin doesn’t state which “security” issues they are concerned about, but I think it is safe to assume it has something to do with piracy. Apparently public libraries are full of pirates? Sorry I’m goning to have to agree with Wilda Williams on this one 

Given how cumbersome downloading library ebooks sometimes can be, real hackers aren’t going to bother with libraries.

And really Penguin? You’re gunning for public libraries when there are much bigger fish to fry?

OK, I really want to write this post without it turning into a rant. Let me attempt to do so.

We are assuming the security issue is piracy because that seems to be the main concern with ebooks. First I did a quick check on a couple of popular torrent sites  and I can confirm that The Help and a number of other ebooks from the homepage of the Penguin website are available to download from both. If Penguin is attempting to keep their ebooks from being pirated the genie is already out of the bottle on that one. I can also confirm that many titles from Simon & Schuster and MacMillan are available on torrent sites. Based on this I think we can conclude that allowing library patrons to read your ebooks on their device does not lead to pirating since neither MacMillan or S&S allow libraries access to their ebooks. Second, we know that most people don’t pirate because they are nefarious criminals walking around with handlebar mustaches tying damsels in distress to railroad tracks,they pirate because a reasonable legal option isn’t available. Now we can debate all day about what constitutes a “reasonable legal option” but since we already know that DRM does not work wouldn’t it be better to stop beating that dead horse, especially at the expense of a public institution like public libraries? After all we’re on your side, why aren’t you on ours?

The Big Six

Now let’s talk about the Big Six. If you’re not familiar that would be Hachette, HarperCollins, MacMillian, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster.

• Both MacMillion and Simon & Schuster have refused to make their ebooks available to public libraries since day one.
• Hachette Book Group stopped offering its frontlist ebook titles to libraries in July.
• HarperCollins – last year HC announced their 26 check out policy.
• Penguin – right now new titles aren’t available while they work out security concerns
• Random House – happily works with libraries. Yay Random House!

I encourage you to share your opinion with them respecrivelly regarding this decision. I also encourage you to share their contact information with your patrons who voice concerns about the unavailabiilty of their titles

Read More

• Citing “Security Concerns” Penguin Pulls New Titles from OverDrive
• Penguin Exits OverDrive Pending Evaluation
• Penguin Group USA to No Longer Allow Library Lending of New Ebook Titles
• Content by Cory Doctorow
• Survey Says Library Users Are Your Best Customers Groundbreaking new study shows value of libraries to the book—and the e-book—business
• OverDrive & Penguin: Is Something Steve Potash Wrote in February a Clue to What’s Going On?
• Penguin Pulls New E-Books From Libraries

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• Publishing Industry Forces OverDrive and Other Library eBook Vendors to Take a Giant Step Back
• Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library – Updated
• Top Ten Links 2.3 – All About Ebooks

I had no idea that Amazon’s announcement would signal the end of the world, or at least the end of public libraries, or as my friend & colleague Andy puts it, the library apocalypse or I would have included this in yesterday’s post.

First let’s talk numbers about the Amazon Lending Library*

• Prime costs $79 a year, that’s roughly $6.58 a month.
• You must have a Kindle (not an app) to use the Amazon Lending Library, those start at $79.
• There are 5,000 titles available, (here’s a breakdown by genre)
• None of the six largest publishers in the U.S. is participating.
• You get one book per month, that doesn’t roll over.

Now library ebook/book numbers (I’m not even going to get into other library services and the availability of a real live person to help you)

• No additional cost, its covered by taxes
• You can use any number of devices for ebooks and no device at all required for print
• Untold numbers of titles available
• 3 of the largest US publishers allow ebook titles in libraries, all allow print.
• Unlimited books per month

Now let’s talk some other numbers.

• 12% of U.S. adults own an ereader. Not a Kindle, an ereader, which includes all other dedicated ereaders.
• 46.2 million Americans live below the poverty line
• 20.5 million Americans are living at 50% or less than poverty line, they are the poorest of the poor.

Now let’s look at the doomsday perspective - the numbers just do not add up. Let’s take the number of ebook readers -12% and be SUPER generous and assume that means that 10% of the population owns a Kindle, that’s 90% of the population that doesn’t. Now you have to assume that the 90% a) can afford a Kindle & a prime membership for every household member and b) wants a Kindle. Those are some pretty big leaps that I’m just not taking with you.

You also have to assume that having access to the Amazon Lending Library means users would stop using the public library system. Also inaccurate. For some one book a month might be enough. But, as someone who as worked in libraries and bookstores most of my life I’m pretty sure that’s not an accurate depiction of an avid reader.

Don’t forget that publishers (and writers) have a dog in this fight too.  They’ve already stated they don’t care for this model for ebooks (though they were referring to libraries when they said it) and last time push came to shove with Amazon the publishers won.

* I know some people are getting all up in arms about the use of the word “library”, I’m choosing to ignore it even though Webster’s first defintion of library is “a place in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale” because it has come to mean so much more and I’m not getting in pissing contest over semantics when there are larger issues here, including that it doesn’t matter what Amazon calls itself, it matters how people see it.

Read More

• I Wouldn’t Get Too Attached to Those Amazon Prime Ebooks added 11/5/2011
• Amazon’s Library Model: Can we learn from it?
• Amazon, Now a Book Lender
• Breakdown of categories in the Kindle Lending Library
• Amazon Sets Up Lending Library for Amazon Prime Kindle Owners
• The Amazon Lending Library is NOT the Library Apocalypse
• Amazon Prime Book Lending: Your FAQs Answered
• Amazon Starts Lending Ebooks, but Head of ALA Says Libraries Still Offer Best Value
• E-reader ownership doubles in six months – Pew
• Sargent compares libraries to Netflix: ‘How is that a good model for us?’
• Amazon Pulls Macmillan Books Over E-Book Price Disagreement

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• Amazon Announces Kindle Lending Library for Prime Members
• Friends, Romans, Countrymen Lend Me Your Ebooks: Resources for Loaning & Borrowing Nook & Kindle Items
• Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library – Updated

If you have been paying attention you knew it was coming. The Kindle Lending Library from Amazon. If you own a Kindle, yes you have to have a device not an app, and a Prime Membership you can now borrow books from Amazon.

More Info

• Kindles start at $79
• Prime Membership is $79 a year.
• You can only borrow one book per calendar month.
• Right now there are about 5,000 titles.
• The book currently being borrowed can be read on multiple Kindles.
• devices, as long as they are registered to the same eligible account, but cannot be read on Kindle reading apps.
• One book can be borrowed at a time, and there are no due dates. You can borrow a new book as frequently as once a month, directly on your registered Kindle device, and you will be prompted to return the book that you are currently borrowing.
• If you have already borrowed a book in that calendar month, you are not yet eligible to borrow a new book until the next calendar month. There is no “roll-over” or accrual of unused borrowing eligibility.

My 2 cents: Honestly I see this hurting publishers and authors far more than libraries. Sure for $80 a year getting to borrow a book a months is a good deal, especially bestsellers. But as someone who has worked in libraries and bookstore almost my entire life I know that a significant demographic library borrows buy books too. Those are the people I use using this service, the ones who already bought the bestsellers because they didn’t want to wait for it. Of course now they can’t donate that used copy to the library. But they’ll still visit the library for other reading material and programs.

What do you think?

PS I’ve been checking the price points of books that are available and so far none of them is over $7.99 and nothing from my wishlist is available.Similar Posts:

• Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library – Updated
• Why Amazon’s Lending Library is Not a Threat to Public Libraries
• Friends, Romans, Countrymen Lend Me Your Ebooks: Resources for Loaning & Borrowing Nook & Kindle Items

I thought I would run a little informal poll here on the blog – What’s the most you’ll pay for an ebook? For me that limit is $9.99 but its arbitrary, so I’m curious, what’s your limit? If you feel like it, please leave a comment with your limit and why you chose that limit.

Edited/Added for clarification: I’ll pay more than $9.99 for textbooks. Even though I am grumpy that I can’t sell them back at the end of the semester it is worth it not to have to deal with a heavy book that wont stay open and tiny print. Plus the highlighting options are super-freaking awesome! That said I do stick to my limit for $9.99 for other books since I don’t outright own it (can’t loan it, can’t sell it, can’t donate it) I feel that it should cost less than the hardback and not $2.00 less such as Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn and of course there are examples where the ebook is more than print, again if I owned it and was not denied my rights it would be a different story.

• eBooks and eReaders: There Can Be Only One
• Publishing Industry Forces OverDrive and Other Library eBook Vendors to Take a Giant Step Back
• Why I’m Returning the Kindle DX or My Continued Search for the Prefect PDF Reader

Just a friendly tip from your friendly online librarian.

It is pretty easy to “extend” the due date of the library ebook you check out to your kindle, just turn your wireless connection off until you’re done with it. This will allow you to keep reading the book until you’re done. The title won’t expire until you reactivate your wireless connection.

Can’t remember to turn your wireless off or just don’t want to keep it off all the time? Consider that handy email notice telling you that you have three days left that you get from Amazon (not your local library), you know the one that includes a link to buy it from Amazon, the signal to turn your wireless off if you aren’t done reading the book. When you’re done, turn your wireless connection back and on the book will “expire” as usual.Similar Posts:

• Why Amazon’s Lending Library is Not a Threat to Public Libraries
• Amazon Announces Kindle Lending Library for Prime Members
• Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library – Updated

During the two day ebook track in at Internet Librarian there were a lot of references to articles, reports and books, by myself, and others so I thought I would put together a link round up.

Content by Cory Docotrow Seriously read this. It’s free to download in the format of your choice and it will help you understand DRM better than anything else.

E-book piracy may have unexpected benefits for publishers

O’Leary makes the distinction between the instances of e-book piracy (the number of pirated e-book files available for download) and the impact of e-book piracy (the actual effect on the business of publishing). For O’Leary, the two are related, but different. He says that one way to measure impact is to pick a book, wait for it to be pirated, and then compare sales before and after.

E-reader ownership doubles in six months

The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011

Across the digital divide. Let’s talk about poverty.

…every time a discussion of ebooks turns, seemingly inevitably, to “Print is dead, traditional publishing is dead, all smart authors should be bailing to the brave new electronic frontier,” what I hear, however unintentionally, is “Poor people don’t deserve to read.”

Theft vs Piracy

Book piracy: Less DRM, more data

Q: What’s the current impact of piracy on the book publishing industry?

A: Brian O’Leary: We don’t know. Some people will tell you that it’s the biggest problem facing publishing or that ebook piracy will kill publishing. None of those perspectives are informed by solid data

Heavy illegal downloaders buy more music

A new British independent poll conducted by Ipsos Mori concluded that the people who do the most illegal downloading also buy the most music. This is in line with many other studies elsewhere and is easy to understand: people who are music superfans do more of everything to do with music: they see more live shows, listen to more radio, buy more CDs, buy more botlegs of live shows, buy more t-shirts, talk about music more, do more downloading — all of it.

Mindset over matter: Timo Boezeman on the digital transition of a centuries-old analog industry.

Q: What is the largest hurdle publishers must overcome in the transition to digital?

A: Timo Boezeman: The largest hurdle in the transition is the mindset. Publishing is one of the oldest industries around and now has to deal with a transition from analog to digital at a speed that is at least twice as fast as the music industry faced.

Digital Underclass: What Happens When the Libraries Die?

Libraries will need to be replaced with digital equivalents as publishing moves towards eBooks. As a result, will a new “Digital Underclass” be created from the base of technology have-nots?

eBooks, Privacy, and the Library - Gary Price’s thought-provoking post from a couple of weeks ago.

Pew Research Center Announces New Research Initiative to Study the Changing Role of Public Libraries and Library Users in the Digital Age

IFLA Committee on Copyright and other Legal Matters (CLM)

Sarah’s video rant

If you’re looking for write ups of the sessions you can find them over at the LibConf blog

There were so many I have no doubt I missed something so let me know!Similar Posts:

• Top Ten Links 2.3 – All About Ebooks
• Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group to Implement Embargo on eBooks
• Penguin Pulls eBooks From Public Libraries Dropping it Down to 1 of the Big 6 Publishers Playing Nice With Libraries

Don’t get me wrong, as a consumer I was celebrating as much as the next guy (or gal) last week about library ebooks (from OverDrive) FINALLY being available on the ever popular Amazon Kindle. I love my Kindle, I’ve written about it. The few textbooks and pdfs I’ve put on it make me love it more. But….

But as a librarian and an ebook activist (if I do say so myself) I have to say we got the short end of that stick my friends. I have been working an expansion of my May blog post for Library Renewal where I raised some concerns :

new concerns have started to creep in as I think through the long term implications for this deal. Amazon is getting access to a LOT of information about libraries, even if it is anonymized, and it is making me wonder if we should have done a better job negotiating our deal. I applaud OverDrive for working with Amazon to get ebooks on the Kindle (and Kindle apps); however, I can’t help feel they should have worked a harder deal for the information we will need to ensure that libraries have a future in the ebook business.

Let’s look at few examples.

Amazon will know exactly how many Kindle owners are library borrowers. This is huge information as we advance in the evolution of ebooks. Libraries should have access to these numbers. Amazon won’t even confirm the exact number of Kindles they’ve sold. Yes OverDrive should be able to tell us numbers and percentages for how many of our borrowers are Kindle owners. But what I would really like to know is how many Kindle owners also borrow from their public library.

Amazon will know exactly what percentage of library checkouts lead to purchase. We know that borrowing books from a library doesn’t hurt sales, and in fact it improves them. There has been research. But now Amazon will have the cold hard numbers that show what percentage of people borrow a book from the library then buy it from Amazon. They might even know if you borrowed an ebook then bought a print copy. This is so important as we (and Amazon) move forward in negotiating our place in the ebook world.

Amazon is going to have access to a LOT of stats about library user habits, both borrowing and buying. These are just two examples.  This is very valuable information as we advance with the development of ebooks, and the role libraries play. This is information libraries need and should have. While I am thrilled personally that I’ll be able to use library ebooks on my Kindle, and professionally that I’ll no longer have to tell Kindle owners that they can’t borrow ebooks from the library because Amazon doesn’t allow it, I can’t help be concerned that in the end we have made a very uneven trade.

But Gary Price over at InfoDocket has put together such a great list of questions and concerns I’m not going to reinvent the wheel. Gary raises some great points so go read the whole thing. Really. Here are a few points I want to highlight

• Is Amazon collecting download information? ​
• Is Amazon saving library download info permanently?
• If not, how long will they keep it? Is there a retention policy?​
• Can you provide any info about privacy as it relates to OverDrive/Amazon?
• Will the library books you borrow be used by Amazon to provide recommendations of books for you to purchase?
• Is there a link to scrub all of your personal “library” data from Amazon.com’s servers with a single click?
• Do OverDrive and Amazon.com have any suggestions about how to make the entire process clearer to users?​​
• How would they respond to the issue that, since the service is being marketed by libraries, users might incorrectly think library privacy policies may still apply?​

To top it off today Amazon made some pretty big announcements today: including 3 new black & white ereaders, their first tablet and their very own browser. In the last year or so Amazon has also announced it’s own Android App Store, Streaming video for Prime Members and a cloud based music library. Add to that their ownership of Audible and wireless delivery of audiobooks directly to your Kindle and Amazon is sitting pretty on a huge mountain of electronic delivery options. Some might argue that so is Apple, but Amazon tops Apple in two ways first their price points, you can’t argue with cheaper. Second is their amazing customer service.  Sure Apple might have good service, but you wont know that until you shell out the big bucks for one of their products fist. But I was getting amazing service from Amazon before Kindle was a twinkle in Jeff’s eye. Good service makes for loyal customers.

How long do you think it will be before Amazon starts their own lending library? Oh wait they already have. You can rent textbooks right now. I guess the question is how long do you think before they start applying what they’ve learned from that model to fiction and popular nonfiction?

Ok so back to libraries and how we got screwed with the library ebooks on the Kindle. We stood around like beggar orphans asking for more instead of making demands. The public library systems in America (and elsewhere) spend a great deal of money each year on books. Money that goes to publishers and authors and instead of standing up as a unified body we’ve taken the pitiful ebooks scraps we’ve been given. I’m not even going to get in to the ebooks as a whole, let’s just talk about the Amazon deal. All of those questions on my list and Gary’s, we should have answers to those. We should at the very least given access to any and all that stats we want or need. We should be getting a referral fee every time a patron buys a book after discovering it in library catalog or something off the one click page that shows up later.

I want to be angry about the bad deal we’re getting, but I’m not even sure who’s screwing us and I don’t know who to be angry with. I could be angry with Amazon, but they are business in business to make money. I could be angry with ALA because they have totally blown it on the books issues, but they are a nonprofit that gets a new president every year and is mostly run by volunteers, and I’m not totally sure they can speak for all the libraries.  I could be angry with OverDrive, but they are business too and I think they did their best to do right by us. I could be angry with the government and political system that have allowed a valuable institution such as public library system to be bullied and dominated by profit hungry businesses, but I wouldn’t even know where to start with that whole ball of mess. I could be angry with the consumer who doesn’t seem to care about privacy and is willing to spend money and sacrifice so much for just a little convenience, but I don’t know how to make them see or, more importantly, care.  I could be angry with me, because it doesn’t matter how many blog posts I write or how many presentations I give I feel like I’m standing alone shouting into the dark about how we’re getting the shaft and I don’t know what to do to make a difference, a real difference. I just don’t know.

But I know we got screwed.

Read More

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• Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library – Updated
• Friends, Romans, Countrymen Lend Me Your Ebooks: Resources for Loaning & Borrowing Nook & Kindle Items
• Amazon Announces Kindle Lending Library for Prime Members

Or any Kindle application including the Cloud Reader. Having gone through this process myself I can say it is almost like magic, especially compared to the pain and suffering that is Adobe Digital Editions. Enjoy!

How to find library ebooks for your Kindle at the High Planes Library District*

This slideshow from the Wake County Public Libraries shows how to return a book early if you’re done or decide you don’t like it.

*most tutorials are specific to the library that made them, your website and options will vary. Similar Posts:

• Will Libraries be Able to Loan the Nook and eBooks from Barnes & Noble?
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There were many announcements made during and around the time of ALA that related to ebooks and libraries. I’ve put together a list in case you  missed any.

Library Specific

ALA Annual 2011: New Ebook Service Launched, Takes Its Inspiration from Freegal

Library Ideas, LLC, has launched a new ebook service for libraries that’s similar to the company’s Freegal Music product. Freading will offer 20,000 copyrighted titles from 16 publishers with a mix of frontlist and backlist titles, the company said today at the American Library Association’s annual conference in New Orleans. The publishers that have signed on include Sterling Publishing, Sourcebooks, Andrews McMeel, and Regnery Publishing. Library Ideas cofounder Brian Downing says he’s hopeful a major publisher will join as well.

3M To Launch Library Ebook Lending Service

3M Library Systems announced in May that it would be unveiling a new ebook lending service for libraries—including an in-library “Discovery Terminal,” 3M eReaders, and 3M apps—at the 2011 American Library Association (ALA) annual conference in New Orleans. When launched, it would be a competitor to OverDrive, which currently dominates the library ebook market.

B&T Launches Axis 360 Library Media Platform at ALA

Baker and Taylor announced plans to roll out its Axis 360 digital media circulation and management platform, a new procurement system that allows librarian to order both physical and digital content—including Blio, Ray Kurzweil’s multimedia e-reading software—from a single source. B&T is also teaming with Barnes & Noble to promote the use of Nook e-reading devices for library-loaned e-books.

Baker & Taylor and B&N team up to make library books available on the Nook

Baker & Taylor, the world’s largest distributor of physical and digital books, and Barnes & Noble, Inc., the world’s largest bookseller, announced at the American Library Association Annual Conference that the companies will partner to build awareness among NOOK customers that digital books are available for loan from local libraries, and to provide all library patrons with a seamless method for borrowing eBooks and other digital content. The highly acclaimed, bestselling line of NOOK ereaders will be featured devices on Axis 360, Baker & Taylor’s revolutionary digital media circulation and management platform. …

Starting this fall, patrons at Axis 360-powered libraries will be able to check out ebooks to read on their personal NOOK devices. From Axis 360, patrons will also have a link to the Barnes & Noble online store for purchasing digital content and physical products

American Library Association E-books Taskforce continues dialogue with HarperCollins

One important outcome of our discussion is that HarperCollins will contribute to the E-books Taskforce’s series of answers to frequently asked questions sent to the taskforce from ALA members that cover issues from basic questions about e-book readers to specific questions about licensing. Our taskforce released its first FAQ addressing questions from public libraries and will release more to address questions from school and academic libraries. HarperCollins’ contribution will give the publisher’s perspective.

What libraries can do when they buy an ebook

When a library buys (not licenses) a copy of an ebook, it is subject to the same copyright restrictions and allowances as when the library buys a hardback copy.

eBooks the New Normal ebook summit from Library Journal and Library School Journal

Library Journal/School Library Journal present the second annual Virtual Summit onEbooks: The New Normal a one-day virtual conference on ebooks and their role in the future of libraries.

This live event brings together public, academic and school librarians (K-12), vendors and publishers, and industry experts to address how libraries are leveraging the ebook opportunity to improve service and reach more users than ever before.

Two Thirds of libraries offer ebooks

The American Library Association have released a new report on Monday, and the report covers the state of American libraries.

General

J K Rowling to sell Harry Potter e-books

The e-books will be released in October, and will be available only on the Pottermore website, but will be compatible across a range of devices, including Amazon’s Kindle.

In six months, (November 2010-May 2011) e-reader ownership doubled from 6% to 12% report from Pew Internet & American Life Project

The percent of U.S. adults with an e-book reader doubled from 6% to 12% between November 2010 and May 2011. Hispanic adults, adults younger than age 65, college graduates and those living in households with incomes of at least $75,000 are most likely to own e-book readers. Parents are also more likely than non-parents to own these devices.

Thoughts from the community

eBooks at Another Milestone – Andy Woodworth on some of the announcements

ALA Annual 2011: Ebooks: New Strategy Required, Now -Heather McCormack’s take on one of the ALA ebook panels

Is This The Tipping Point For E-Books & Libraries? Audrey Waters at ReadWriteWeb looks at some of the recent announcements

3M’s eBook Cloud Library Didn’t Come Out of Nowhere! Eric Hellman on the 3M announcement

Report from ALA’s OITP eBook Task Force Meeting With HarperCollins by Peter Brantley

ALA Annual 2011: Louisiana Deep-Fried Angst – Heather McCormack’s thoughts on the HarperCollins discussion

Ebook Vendors at #ALA11 – David Lee King’s take on the vendors he spoke with [added 7.5.2011 2:20 est]

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