Libraries Struggle to Meet the Demand for E-Books

More and more people are owning e-readers, either getting them as presents or purchasing them for themselves. With this increase in ownership comes an increase in demand for e-books. Keeping up with this demand is proving to be a problem for many public libraries.

Are there enough e-books to go around? Libraries and their patrons are finding that the answer is "no."

image source: http://www.engadget.com

The root of this problem is that e-books are in alarmingly short supply at public libraries due to budget constraints and the reluctance of big book publishers to furnish a sufficient number of copies (or deliver any copies at all). As a result, there are incredibly long waiting lists for the most popular titles. In many instances, patrons could get the desired books faster if they went to their local branch and checked out the paper version.

The following Washington Post article further examines libraries' "struggle to stock their virtual shelves."

Washington Post * January 14, 2012

As Demand for E-Books Soars, Libraries Struggle to Stock Their Virtual Shelves

By Christian Davenport

A seminar on mobile devices at the Reston branch of the Fairfax Country Library in Virginia.

photo: jahi chikwendiu/washington post

Kindles, Nooks and iPads can do many amazing things, but they can’t bump you ahead in line at the Reston Regional Library. In fact, if you want to borrow a book, it may be quicker to put down your sleek new device and head into the stacks.

Checking out e-books without having to leave home — just as you would buy a title online: click and boom, there it is — might be the fastest-growing segment in the library business these days. But the experience is often far from the on-demand satisfaction people have come to expect from their laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Want to take out the new John Grisham? Get in line. As of Friday morning, 288 people were ahead of you in the Fairfax County Public Library system, waiting for one of 43 copies. You’d be the 268th person waiting for “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,” with 47 copies. And the Steve Jobs biography? Forget it. The publisher, Simon & Schuster, doesn’t make any of its digital titles available to libraries.

Frustration is building on all sides: among borrowers who can’t get what they want when they want it; among librarians trying to stock their virtual shelves and working with limited budgets and little cooperation from some publishers; and among publishers who are fearful of piracy and wading into a digital future that could further destabilize their industry. In many cases, the publishers are limiting the number of e-books made available to libraries.

Already, the exploding demand for e-books has changed how libraries operate. Traditionally, going to the library has been like going to Wal-Mart, said Paula Isett, outreach specialist with the Maryland Department of Education, who consults with the state’s libraries.

“Everything you need and want is there,” she said. “There are unlimited books, and if a library doesn’t have a book, they can get it. . . . Our e-book library is not like that. There is such demand, and we’re struggling to keep up with it.”

Now libraries are increasingly faced with a delicate balancing act: How much of their acquistion money should be spent on print books, and how much on digital content?

Accelerating growth

Even though Maryland’s entire library system more than doubled its inventory in the past couple of years, it has fewer than 10,000 copyrighted e-books available. Meanwhile, the number of e-book checkouts across the state almost quadrupled in that time, to 266,000 last year.

Librarians are seeing the growth accelerate. In September, Amazon announced that for the first time, its hugely popular Kindle devices would be able to download e-books from libraries. In the past few weeks, there has been a post-holiday surge as millions of people unwrapped iPads, Nook Colors, Kindle Fires and other e-readers.

In the District, where the library budget has been slashed so much in recent years that the system considered closing its main branch on Sundays, e-book checkouts grew 116 percent from 2010 to 2011. And there were more checkouts in the first quarter of this fiscal year than there were in all of the previous year, said Ginnie Cooper, chief librarian of the D.C. Public Library system.

E-books now account for 2 percent of the system’s total circulation, she said. But at a recent meeting, Cooper asked her branch managers to predict what that figure would be in five years.

“The lowest prediction was 15 percent, and some said they thought it would be half of what we do,” Cooper said.

In Fairfax, officials more than doubled the inventory of e-book copies from 2010 to 2011, to more than 10,000, but demand for the books tripled in that time. Now the average wait time is three weeks. Of course, there can also be lengthy waits for hardcover and paperback books, although those waits are usually for current bestsellers while older titles are generally available.

By contrast, on a typical day, about 80 to 85 percent of the system’s e-books are checked out, said Elizabeth Rhodes, the collection services coordinator for the Fairfax library system. But after the holidays, when many people received e-readers, 98 percent of the collection was spoken for.

And thousands of books are simply unavailable — not because they’re checked out, but because many publishers have strictly limited the number of e-books made available to libraries or have withheld them altogether.

Wary of piracy and the devastation it has caused the music and film industries, Penguin recently put its new e-book titles off-limits. Like Simon & Schuster, Macmillan doesn’t make its e-book content available to libraries. And last year, HarperCollins announced that it would require libraries to renew licenses for e-books after 26 checkouts, outraging some librarians.

Several library systems have pushed back against publishers who limit their content, refusing to buy from them and speaking out about how such restrictions upend more than 200 years of collaboration between publishers and libraries to make information available to the public.

Publishers have bristled at the criticism, saying that they have long supported libraries and that there are legitimate concerns about piracy.

In November, when it announced that it was withholding its new e-books from libraries, Penguin said it has “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.”

Piracy is a real concern that has cost publishers tens of millions, said Albert Greco, a professor at the Fordham University business school who specializes in publishing.

“U.S. government departments and agencies have been hacked,” he said. “If they can be hacked, think about the local public library in Alexandria, Virginia. The odds are its firewall is not as good as the Defense Department’s.”

‘Fluid and dynamic time’

Publishers are also struggling to cope with vast changes in the industry, as brick-and-mortar stores such as Borders go under and online vendors such as Amazon have started selling e-books for far less than the print editions.

“It is a fluid and dynamic time, and many publishers are reevaluating their business model as it relates to retail and libraries,” said David Burleigh, a spokesman for OverDrive Inc., which serves as an intermediary between publishers and libraries.

In the short term, libraries may not be able to meet customer demand for e-books, he said.

“But it’s still very early,” he said. “E-books have just really grown significantly in the last couple of years. . . . Libraries have had decades to build their physical catalogues.”

Cooper, the District’s chief librarian, is confident that library e-book collections will continue to grow and that the market is just experiencing growing pains.

“I can see the day when we will make the choice to lease . . . e-book content rather than a physical copy of the book,” she said.

Until then, expect to wait.

Meg Broad, 22, a recent American University graduate, got a Kindle Fire for Christmas and immediately put herself on waiting lists for several books at the Montgomery County library, including “Atlas Shrugged” by Ayn Rand and “Nineteen Eighty-Four” by George Orwell.

Since then, she’s moved up the waiting list, but as of last week, she had still not received any books. So, she said, she used a gift card she also received to buy the first book of “The Hunger Games” trilogy from Amazon.

“And,” she said, “I played a lot of Angry Birds.”

Saving Indie Bookstores in the Age of Amazon

My neighborhood recently lost its only bookstore. Making this loss even more tragic is that it was an independent bookstore. It was an intimate space stacked from floor to ceiling with cheaply priced books, and the owner and staff were friendly. It had been around for years, but few outside the neighborhood knew about it. I chalked this up to poor promotion: it had virtually no online presence, didn't advertise in local media, and began hosting in-store events (sporadically) only toward the end of its operation.

WORD, an indie bookstore in Brooklyn, has thrived, thanks to an active online and social media presence, many well-publicized in-store events, and an expertly curated selection of books.

image source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bitchcakes/3753981022/lightbox

I feel this bookstore could have been saved (or at least prolonged its existence) if its owner had created a sophisticated-looking website and updated it frequently; actively connected with the public through social media such as Facebook and Twitter; routinely emailed customers about upcoming events; placed ads in local indie publications; and hosted in-store events on a regular basis. These events wouldn't have needed big names; they could have just spotlighted area talent. Or they could've been crafting get-togethers or movie nights (with book tie-ins) - anything to draw people to the store.

In the age of Amazon, bookstores - especially independent bookstores - have to try harder to just survive. This means establishing a lively Web presence, featuring expertly curated staff selections, and hosting more events, as Janaka Stucky suggests in his article "How to Survive in the Age of Amazon," published on the Poetry Foundation's website. It also means interacting in a more personable way with customers. At many small bookstores I've been to, the staff have acted in a gruff or condescending manner when approached. Sometimes, they've ignored me altogether. I want to support an independent establishment, but if I'm not treated as a valued customer there, I'll take my money elsewhere. It's as simple as that.

In a Big Think article, which I've reposted below, Austin Allen touches on many of these points. He further states that by catering to the needs of a particular group of people - in this case, poets and fans of poetry - bookstores can better save themselves. I don't think indie bookstores' focus has to be (or should be) this narrow to ensure their survival. (After all, countless bookstores that catered to specific populations, such as women, blacks, and gays, for instance, have gone under in recent decades.) I feel as long as independent bookstores actively make their presence known online, in print, and in the community - and they are at least polite to their customers - they'll have a fighting chance at staying alive in the age of Amazon.

Ps. I understand there are factors beyond bookstores' control, such as rent increases, that can spell doom for these establishments. But this blog and the accompanying article focus on what bookstores can do on their end to help preserve (or even grow) their business.

BigThink.com * January 12, 2012

"Humanity Over Technology": The Stucky Plan to Save Bookstores

By Austin Allen

Bravo to Janaka Stucky, whose new article in Poetry on struggling independent bookstores is both the most sensible and inspiring thing I’ve read on the subject. Stucky concedes what everyone in the industry knows, that a price war with Amazon is one small bookstores cannot win. Reasoning that these stores must therefore fight on different turf, he offers some concrete suggestions: establish a lively Web presence, feature expertly curated staff selections, and above all, host more events—that is, become a hub not just for reading material but for readings.

While not radically original, Stucky's advice is lucidly explained through anecdotes from his own experience (as the publisher of Black Ocean Press, he works frequently with indie bookshops). And where most book-business articles would rehash their theses in a neat concluding paragraph, Stucky builds instead to a rousing and unexpected finish. Since the Amazon Wars are an unusual topic for Poetry magazine, I might have seen this coming, but I didn’t:

People who read poetry are the unsung customer base for independent bookstores: they are avid readers, they love books as physical objects, they will religiously attend author readings, they read books on a variety of subjects, and they buy more books annually than anyone else I know. By catering to the type of person who reads poetry, these successful bookstores have perhaps unwittingly remained focused on what devoted patrons of bookstores really value: variety over homogeneity, literature over media, humanity over technology, and community over price…

If bookstores can learn to embrace these odd readers as secret representatives of the type of person who’s at the core of their customer base, rather than get sucked into a doomed downward spiral of price slashing on the latest best-selling hardcover, they will remain relevant and attractive to the customers they need in order to survive. Poetry, the least profitable and most esoteric of all the genres, can save the bookstore.

You can accuse Stucky of being self-serving or self-congratulatory—and can accuse me of the same, since I’m an MFA poetry student—but to me this rings absolutely true. More broadly, I think independent bookstores must seek their core customer base in the products of the modern creative writing boom. Some numerical context will help here: last year an estimated 1,400 students graduated with MFAs in poetry, compared with around 700 in 2001. That’s about 10,000 over the past decade. Now include all other genres (fiction, memoir, etc.), and you’ve got at least double to triple that number.

Combine this with writers outside of programs, and you’re looking at a vast (and growing) pool of younger people not only interested but potentially invested in the bookstore experience. Like Prairie Lights and other outfits that thrive in prominent MFA communities, small bookstores everywhere need to greet these writers with open arms. Thousands of them would be willing to offer live entertainment, in the form of readings, to as many local bookstores as their time and travel budget allow. They would do so not for pay but for the opportunity to promote books, which they’ve typically published through small presses like Stucky’s—presses which in turn are finding new ways to survive thanks to print-on-demand technology, social media outreach, and, as Stucky describes, carefully cultivated ties with select stores.

In other words, the salvation of the independent bookstore is closely linked to the salvation of the independent publisher and the independent writer. Through the enhanced connections made possible by—what else?—the Web, this already cozy relationship can and must become an exuberant ménage à trois.

[Image courtesy Flickr Creative Commons, user eflon.]

Amazon Introduces Kindle Owners' Lending Library

Amazon, in a press release yesterday, announced the arrival of its new digital lending library for Kindle users. Called the "Kindle Owners' Lending Library," it allows for the borrowing of e-books that have no due dates.

So how does Amazon's new program stack up against public libraries and their e-book borrowing programs?


Lending Library on Kindle Fire
image via wired.com via amazon.com.

First, borrowing e-books from the public library is absolutely free. Users of the Kindle Owners' Lending Library must pay an annual fee of $79. That's about $6.50 per month, which is more than the cost of purchasing an e-book outright.

Second, most of the books that can be borrowed through Amazon's digital lending library are not new titles. They are mostly backlist titles that the publishers have made available in hopes of generating extra revenue.

Nevertheless, it remains to be seen how the Kindle Owners' Lending Library will ultimately impact public libraries' e-book programs.

For more information on this new development from Amazon, see the Wired.com article below.



Wired.com * November 3, 2011

Kindle Lending Library Takes a Chance with Borrowing Books

By Tim Carmody

Amazon unveiled a long-rumored “Netflix-for-books” digital lending library Wednesday. Via yet another enhancement for Amazon Prime, subscribers who also own Kindles can borrow one (and only one) book per month from about 5,000 available titles. Once borrowed, you keep the book for as long as you like — there is no due date after which DRM will cripple the file.

The official title of the program is the “Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.” It’s similar to the Amazon Prime Instant Video service, which likewise offers free streaming movies and television shows to customers who pay $79 per year for two-day shipping at no additional cost on most Amazon.com products. The library is another benefit to entice customers to spring for Prime membership, which in turn typically leads to plenty of extra shopping on Amazon.

Why isn’t it just called Amazon Prime Instant Library, then? Borrowed books can only be read on Kindle devices — not apps on computers, smartphones or those funny tablets (popular or otherwise) that aren’t made by Amazon. Remember: It’s “Buy Once, Read Everywhere,” not “Borrow Once, Read Everywhere.”

So in addition to an Amazon Prime subscription, the library is also an incentive to buy a Kindle. Thankfully, all generations of Kindle devices are included. Also, thankfully, someone drew the line at calling the thing “Amazon Prime Kindle Owners’ Lending Library,” even though that’s really what it is.

It’s also different both structurally and practically from public libraries’ e-book lending, which rolled out to Kindles in September. The books are licensed directly between Amazon and publishers, not through a library. There’s no limit on how many copies of the same title can be checked out at once; and there’s no due date.

Fair warning, though: if you were only going to subscribe to Amazon Prime to borrow books, it’s not a great deal. $79 annually works out to about $6.50 per month, and many of these titles don’t even cost that much to purchase outright as e-books and read everywhere. Amazon’s press release touts the inclusion of “100 current and former New York Times bestsellers,” but there’s a lot more “former” and a lot less “current” on that list.

As a fringe benefit to Prime, though, it’s solid. And it gives publishers a chance to generate some extra revenue from backlist titles, both directly through the lending program and indirectly, through the extra visibility borrowed books have for eventual purchase.

Amazon’s Russell Grandinetti told the Wall Street Journal that most publishers were receiving a flat fee for making their books available, while a handful (we’re guessing a few tentpole titles) are effectively being treated as sales, with the publisher receiving the same fee Amazon would pay if a customer bought the book every time it’s borrowed.

This isn’t about netting Amazon money up front as much as it is about establishing the program’s viability — to customers, sure, but especially to publishers. None of the “Big Six” publishers are participating in this go-around. In September, we wrote about why publishers were right to be wary of Amazon’s book subscription plans: nobody really knows yet what the right to borrow a digital book is worth.

If book subscriptions/lending works, though, the program has natural room to grow. Not only could it encompass more publishers and authors, but could also offer more kinds of content (periodical backlists, anyone?) or tiered subscriptions to permit borrowing more than one book at a time or reading on multiple devices. This is a new market: it could support several different models.

The real success, for both publishers and readers, will be if the prospect of lending fees entices more publishers to digitize more of the backlist. Think of all of those “I’d like to read this book on Kindle” titles that might not sell enough copies to support making available for sale alone, but which a flat-fee floor and Amazon’s desire to offer books by the tens of thousands might get moving again, the equivalent of old TV shows on Netflix.

A real digital library. Whether it comes from Amazon, Google Books or a government-funded Digital Public Library, I’ll take it where I can get it.