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

Similar Posts:

• 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

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

Similar Posts:

• 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?
• Amazon Announces Kindle Lending Library for Prime Members
• Public Library eBooks on the Amazon Kindle – We Got Screwed

There is nothing exceptional or particularly exciting about my returning the Kindle DX . But I’ve been talking about how much I want one just to use it to read PDFs that I thought I should share what went wrong.

In a nutshell something call “enhanced pdf reader”. A huge motivation for getting my Kindle 3G last year was the highlighting and note-taking ability for books. Amazon magically syncs them to kindle.amazon.com so you can access your notes any time. I copy mine to Google docs so I can search all of them whenever I need to. It’s wonderful. It’s fabulous. It’s magical.

I read a lot, I mean a LOT of reports, in pdf format and I got to thinking wouldn’t it be great if I could use these same features for reports. No more searching for that statistic or quote through the 3 shelves of printed reports (yes really). So I started longing for a Kindle DX. I read around, I did some research and after months I finally caved and ordered one.  I did my research, I read the Amazon pages, they even have this great comparison chart for you.

Native pdf support! Check! It will work!

Except it doesn’t. What isn’t made clear, on the Amazon.com site, or anywhere else (except a few forums after extensive searching) is that “enhanced pdf reader” is required for pdf highlighting & note taking. Commence teeth-gnashing & weeping.  So I’m packing it up and sending it back.  Don’t get me wrong I think it’s great, but it doesn’t do what I need from it. I also think Amazon is totally missing a market here for students, especially grad students who read so many pdf reports that the idea of carrying them around in a small device and to be able to take notes & highlights would be awesome.

My quest for the perfect pdf reading/highlight/note-taking tool continues.  Before you start leaving suggestions here is what I’m looking for:

• ability to highlight
• ability to make notes
• ability to export those notes & highlights to Google docs separate from the document its self so I can search them easily at any time.
• small & portable, easy to read on a plane or carry around with me.
• preferably e-ink, but if you can recommend a super awesome program that will work on the PC I’d consider it.

 Similar Posts:

• Why I Chose Kindle
• Why I Love Kindle Desktop for eBooks
• How I Got Over My Issues and Learned to Love eBooks

I’ve shared some additional thoughts about the news of the forthcoming Kindle Lending Library, as Amazon likes to call, or as we librarians like to call it, Kindle owners will finally be able to use library ebooks, it in a post at Library Renewal.

Library eBooks Coming Soon to Amazon Kindle! But At What Cost?

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

Read this.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

Every eBook user should have the following rights:

• the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
• the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
• the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
• the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks

I believe in the free market of information and ideas.

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.

These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand. To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.

To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work

Like it? Agree with it? Take it, its yours. It has a CC0 license which waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work. Think it needs tweaking? You’re free to do that too. Post in on your blog. Tweet it. Post it on Facebook. Share it outside of libraryland. Get the conversation moving.

Where did it come from? Not me, I can’t take credit for it. A lot of things have shown up in my inbox over the last couple of days in response to the HarperCollins Fiasco, I find this one the most significant. It comes from Sarah-Houghton-Jan and Andy Woodworth, they aren’t asking for credit or recognition . Sarah was worked tirelessly on ebook rights and freedom of access to information and electronic content. She and Andy want to share this.Similar Posts:

• Publishing Industry Forces OverDrive and Other Library eBook Vendors to Take a Giant Step Back
• eBook Link Round Up from Internet Librarian #il2011
• Why Amazon’s Lending Library is Not a Threat to Public Libraries

My personally selected top ten from the links I shared on Twitter 1.16.2011 through 1.22.2011.  In no particular order

About Top Ten Links – I share a lot on Twitter over the course of a week. I know not everyone is on Twitter or on Twitter every moment, so last year I decided I would pull the top ten, the best of the best, the most important things I shared on Twitter and post them on the blog. Its a good review for me and hopefully helpful to you.

1. Reviewing the impact of #Kindle not supporting or supporting library books #ebooks via @msauers an interesting look at the possible cost impact of Amazon allowing library ebooks on the Kindle. I don’t agree with all the numbers and assumptions but it is interesting and thought provoking.

2. Like It, Keep It: eBooks Now Available for Purchase - From the New York Public Library

If you enjoy an eBook or audiobook and want to add it to your collection, you can purchase select titles using LibraryBin’s Buy It Now service, a new offering from NYPL and our eBook vendor, OverDrive. Just go to the LibraryBin website and choose your title. When you check out, you can select NYPL as the library you want to receive a portion of the proceeds from your purchase. With these funds, the Library will be able to add more eBooks and audiobooks to our collections.

Prices start at 89 cents and hot titles are 25% off:
Test-drive LibraryBin now

NYPL eBooks now work on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

3. Are people really ready for eBooks? My attempt to give away 100 of them – The Ubiquitous Librarian, Brian Matthews details what it took to give away 100 digital copies of the campus wide read.

4 . Getting started with #ebooks a beginners guide Nice graphic though as someone pointed out it is missing the Kindle for Mac app.

5. Lend Me Your E-book (Part 1) | Publishing Perspective and Lend Me Your E-books (Part 2) | Publishing Perspectives #ebook – great break down of ebook lending issues by distributor.

6. Does eBook Piracy Help Sales? via @ALA_TechSource

Does piracy help sales? Magellan Media founder Brian O’Leary thinks it can. In an interview with Forbes.com, O’Leary discusses how piracy may have helped lift sales for O’Reilly Mediaand Thomas Nelson titles.

He said: “Data that we collected for the titles O’Reilly put out showed a net lift in sales for books that had been pirated. So, it actually spurred, not hurt, sales. But we were only looking at O’Reilly and Thomas Nelson. The results are not emblematic of publishing overall. It could be more conservative, it could be less conservative. We just don’t have enough data. I’ve tried to get other publishers to join in, but it really hasn’t been a successful mission. Even at a low- or no-cost offer, publishers seem reluctant to collect the data required to reveal the true impact of book piracy.”

7. How to Remove DRM from Your Kindle Ebooks – from Lifehacker. Though since my Kindle books work on my Kindle, Android phone, Laptop and Netbook I don’t way I would want to.

8. E-books Are Not Horseless Carriages – I completely agree with what say Andy Burkhardt says

We gravitate to what we know and what we’re used to. An e-book is not a book on electronic paper. It is a completely new medium that will have myriad unanticipated effects, both positive and negative. I’m guessing “electronic paper” and “e-ink” are both going to sound a lot like “horseless carriage” in 20 years. Also the way we consume, share, and interact with e-books is going to be different than paper books. We are inventing the future right now through our action and inaction. We should be mindful of the past, but not so wrapped up in it that we aren’t able to see the future.

9. Ebooks and Libraries: A Stream of Concerns (from Meredith Farkas) via @TheLiB – a long post from Meredith about ebook issues.

10.  “The e-book thing isn’t happening, it has happened.”via @LibraryStuff- I was in the audience at Mid Winter when Brewster Kahle said this. I didn’t agree with everything he said but I definitely think libraries are behind the curve on ebook issuesSimilar Posts:

• Simon & Schuster and Hachette Book Group to Implement Embargo on eBooks
• eBook Link Round Up from Internet Librarian #il2011
• Friends, Romans, Countrymen Lend Me Your Ebooks: Resources for Loaning & Borrowing Nook & Kindle Items