- Submitted by Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries
Spring is in the air, but eBook prices for libraries still leave us cold. View the latest eBook price comparison from Douglas County Libraries.
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- Submitted by Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries
Library Renewal offers insight into “the reality of the public library ebook marketplace reflected in usage data from a selection of public libraries.”
“In order to serve our constituents with electronic content, libraries need to be able to understand how our collections are being used. This paper aims to present library-centered usage data to help libraries make decisions with regards to e-content, and to counter media and industry hype. Much has been written about the impact of major publisher changes on library lending, which are noted in the Sidebar. By looking at these events in the context of actual usage data, this report endeavors to demonstrate that a vendor-driven ebook model is neither extensible nor sustainable.”
Read the full article. As Jamie concludes: “The future of ebooks in libraries looks expensive.”
- Submitted by Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries
“Because the non-big six e-books we buy from publishers outside the big six vary in quality, and do not have the pre-existing demand of some of the major publisher’s titles, he suggested this somehow constitutes a return to the prescriptive purchases common at the dawn of librarianship.”
Read the original Publisher’s Weekly article Giving Them What They Should Want and Jamie’s full response.
- Submitted by Christine Kreger, Colorado State Library
“Provincetown Public Press, a new digital book publishing operation of the public library, is offering writers and artists the ability to create and distribute a digital book on the Internet.”
Read more about this initiative from the Provincetown Public Library.
- Submitted by Jamie LaRue, Douglas County Libraries
Douglas County Libraries has released its latest price comparison report for books from the New York Times Bestseller lists.
“…note the stark contrast of our one title from Smashwords. (Jamie LaRue)”
- Submitted by Christine Kreger, Colorado State Library
The eBook puzzle is not just an issue in the United States.
“Dutch libraries cannot lend e-books as part of their services, the education and culture minister has concluded in a research report on the Copyright Law, digital services and the role of public libraries.”
According to this article, individual Dutch libraries can lend eBooks if they negotiate their own deals with individual authors and publishers.
- Submitted by Jim Duncan, Colorado Library Consortium
“It’s been a while since booksellers sued publishers but that’s what’s just happened as three independent bookstores have filed an antitrust class action lawsuit against the big six houses and Amazon charging that by signing agreements that call for the use of DRM on e-books sold through the Kindle, the online retailer and the publishers have combined to restrict the sale of e-books.”
Read more about this development.
- Submitted by Rochelle Logan, Douglas County Libraries
“Impelsys, a global leader in providing electronic content delivery solutions, today announced the commercial launch of a new title acquisitions system for libraries that enables library staff to order eBooks for their collections directly from participating publishers.”
Jamie La Rue (Douglas County Libraries) and Jimmy Thomas (Marmot Library Network) are both quoted in the article.
- Submitted by Rochelle Logan, Douglas County Libraries
The Digital Arizona Library Project (DAZL) is exploring a statewide e-book service for Arizona’s public libraries.
Colorado’s Carson Block prepared an environmental scan report (PDF) for DAZL.
- Submitted by Christine Kreger, Colorado State Library
“IFLA is pleased to launch a new set of resources relating to eBooks and libraries. Providing access to eBooks is one of the most pressing issues facing libraries right now.”
Building up on its background paper on eLending from 2012, IFLA is launching its official policy document ‘IFLA Principles for Library eLending’ “which was endorsed by the Governing Board in February 2013.”