Posts Tagged ‘ e-books ’

Ebook Readership Increases, Still Only 21%

April 5, 2012
By
Ebook Readership Increases, Still Only 21%

Before you get too excited about the 21% who have read an ebook in the last year compared it with the 22% who reported not reading a book at all. That compares with 22% who told us they had not read a book in the previous 12 months or didn’t answer a book-reading question in December 2011. That number, the number of people NOT reading books at all in any format, it’s going up too. Where did I get this fun and exciting data? Yesterday Pew released it’s report on The Rise of e-Reading. The report is full of data related to ereaders, ebooks, and the general reading and book borrowing habits of Americans.  the whole thing deserves reading. (Full disclaimer – I serve on the Library Advisory Board for this research) Specifically related to libraries (emphasis added by me): When readers were asked about the most recent book they read in any format, print, audio, or e-book: How had they gotten it? Almost half (48%) of readers age 16 and older said they had purchased it. About a quarter (24%) said they had borrowed it from a friend or family member, and 14% said they borrowed it from a library. One area

Read more »

Should Libraries Get Out of the eBook Business?

March 7, 2012
By
Should Libraries Get Out of the eBook Business?

Or get out at least until there is a better system? I know what you are going to say, I can hear it already – “We can’t! Our patrons demand ebooks!” Except the truth is our patrons want a lot of things we can’t give them – to always be first on the waiting list for the new James Patterson, to not pay fines when their books are late, for the library to be open earlier or later, or to have a system besides Dewey because despite using it their entire lives they still cannot figure it out. When it comes to ebooks, we cannot give them what they want, not really, we cannot give them books from Simon and Schuster or MacMillian or new books from Penguin or Hatchet, and not more than 26 times from HarperCollins, and probably not many books from Random House. What we can do, what maybe we should do, is spend their tax money wisely, and I am no longer convinced that spending it on the current ebook system is a wise move. The Demand: First let’s look at the demand. As librarians we spend a great deal of time thinking and talking about books and subsequently ebooks. But

Read more »

Why Amazon’s Lending Library is Not a Threat to Public Libraries

November 4, 2011
By
Why Amazon’s Lending Library is Not a Threat to Public Libraries

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.

Read more »

Public Library eBooks on the Amazon Kindle – We Got Screwed

September 28, 2011
By
Public Library eBooks on the Amazon Kindle – We Got Screwed

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

Read more »

photo by Beth Tribe

Help Keep This Site Ad Free

Like what you read? Donate!



Flattr this

Books


Feel free to quote blog posts and link back to the site. Please do not copy my entire post on your site. Thank you
Creative Commons License