[Web4lib] Request for info: Libraries thatare circulatinge-book readers

[Campbell, James (jmc)]

I'm dubious about arguing with someone who misquotes me to make debating points, but just to clarify: I never made any recommendation that e-book readers not be "made available to the public who cannot afford them."  I said that libraries should make their own decisions about how to spend their budgets so as to best serve their readers and I allowed that in some few situations lending e-book readers might be the way to go. 

On pricing, I think you ought to do a little reading. Publishers are very upset with Amazon's policies and one of the ways Apple is attracting them to the iPad is precisely by allowing them to set the prices. Many industry pundits are now speculating that as the prices of delivery systems come down, the price of content will go up to ensure a constant revenue stream. The music analogy is flawed. In the music industry it has long been true that artists got stiffed by the record companies and made their money off touring. The move to iTunes etc therefore made relatively little difference to many of them, they still make their money on the road.  Authors really don't have that option.

This is all a short-term argument anyway. Eventually we'll move away from the dedicated device to cloud-based access. The iPad is the first step, and this will all look very different in a couple of years.

      - Jim Campbell

      Digital Access Librarian | Librarian for German
      University of Virginia Library | Charlottesville, VA 22904-4112

      513 Alderman | campbell at virginia.edu | 434-924-4985


-----Original Message-----
From: Robert L. Balliot [mailto:rballiot at oceanstatelibrarian.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 2:12 PM
To: 'Wilfred Drew'; 'Tim Spalding'; Campbell, James (jmc)
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: RE: [Web4lib] Request for info: Libraries thatare circulatinge-book readers


I don't think the e-book licensing for public libraries is sufficiently evolved to make prediction number 2.  I think the trend will most likely follow the same downward pressure as the music and video market. I think that the academic market is an anomaly in the overall book market with some factors that don't fall in line with the rest of the curve.

I can select thousands of videos from NetFlix and view them online for about $10 a month. I can watch them without commercial interruption. I can watch PBS content without being hit up with incessant interruptions by their begathons. Obviously, the video distributors found it profitable. Books represent much less data byte for byte than videos.  So, they are much less expensive to distribute as data.  

Each time a book is physically circulated by a library, it represents many costs.  There is the cost of manufacturing the book, marketing the book, selecting the book, the processing, the shelving, the re-shelving, the labeling, the delivery in ILL, the wear and tear on the book and amortization without tax benefit, and the space in the library for the book.  

The fact is, the e-book is much less expensive to deliver and less expensive to deliver than thousands of videos on NetFlix. I disagree with Jim's assessment of the viability of this sort of loan when the unit cost has moved down so far.  I also wonder why he would use an argument that he has personally used disposable income for two e-book readers, but does not recommend that they are made available to the public who cannot afford them.

Seems like a bunch of tom-foolery to me.

*************************************************
Robert L. Balliot
Skype: RBalliot
Bristol, Rhode Island
http://oceanstatelibrarian.com/contact.htm
*************************************************

-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Wilfred Drew
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 12:09 PM
To: 'Tim Spalding'; Campbell, James (jmc)
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Request for info: Libraries thatare circulatinge-book readers

Tim

To number 1: Some academic libraries, not most of them.

I agree with no. 2.  It may turn into something similar to the author payments made by libraries in Great Britain every time a book is loaned.

-----------------------------------------
Wilfred (Bill) Drew, M.S., B.S., A.S.
Assistant Professor
Librarian, Systems and Tech Services
Strengths: Ideation, Input, Learner, Command, Analytical 
E-mail: dreww at tc3.edu 
Follow the library: http://twitter.com/TC3Library
Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail or document.


-----Original Message-----
From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org [mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Tim Spalding
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 11:28 AM
To: Campbell, James (jmc)
Cc: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] Request for info: Libraries that are circulatinge-book readers

FWIW--and to reverse myself somewhat—I think the situation is somewhat
different for academics:

1. Academic libraries are used to paying huge amounts for monographs.
A single Brill volume about Greek history can set you back $300 and
still not get read. So putting some cheap stuff on a $150 Kobo reader
as an experiment isn't such a terrible deal. You're trading money for
a little flash, and some learning.

2. Academic ebook licensing will be different. Trade publishers will
never allow public libraries to have a "real" lending right. They
don't want to sell the Lost Symbol once and have 10 or 20 people read
it--the sort of thing that physical books now allow. But so long as
the library can't lend an ebook outside of the institution, academic
publishers doesn't care if there's an unlimited right to read some
obscure academic monograph that probably won't be read by two people
in a year, let alone two people at the same time. They will—indeed
are—selling e-monograph access at fairly normal (pricey!) rates.

Tim


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