Will e-book access determine the fate of libraries?
Friday, August 9, 2013 at 05:16AM 
Going nearly unnoticed by the school library profession is a battle being fought that may well determine whether libraries continue to exist. And this is not hyperbole.
To date, major publishers (often called the Big6) have been treating e-books far differently from the way they treat print books when providing them to libraries. Limiting the number of circulations before needing to be repurchased, selling for a hugely inflated cost (5X the cost of a print title), leasing rather than selling ownership of titles, and refusing to sell to libraries altogether are some of the conditions major publishers have imposed on library sales - especially of popular titles.
I am not sure exactly why publishers are so leery of entering into the same symbiotic relationship they've enjoyed with libraries that they have had in the print book era - more exposure to books, authors, and genres via libraries leading to bigger sales for publishers. Fear of piracy, maximization of profits, because they can?
Public libraries have adopted some strategies to deal with the restrictions placed on e-books sales in a number of ways, including becoming self-publishers (Douglas (CO) County Libraries) and public-shaming via Facebook (Kansas State Library System). But neither of these solutions are particularly satisfying when one would like to check out the latest Michael Connolly mystery in digital form.1
What may be more effective are efforts now being made by state and local governments passing resolutions asking for legislation regulating the sale of e-books to libraries, citing the availability of published materials through libraries as a public good.2 We've needed, but not had, a First-Sale Doctrine for the distribution and ownership of e-materials for some time. Such a doctrine is not something the free market is likely to provide on its own.
I applaud the work the American Library Association is doing in working with publishers to find some treaty in this war between libraries and publishers. As an increasing number of us read primarily (or solely) e-content and as devices for reading e-books and magazines drop in price, the ability for libraries to provide materials that the public actually wants electronically will be critical.
So I'm thinking about this as I prepare to spend over $17K on e-book titles for just our elementary schools. This amount, about 22% of our total materials budget, will buy 66 titles of primarily high-interest non-fiction. Purchased through Mackin Via, these titles will be available to us into perpetuity, can be read by multiple users simultaneously, and be accessed from home. I estimate we are paying at least 50% more per title than were we buying these items in print format despite getting a "10% discount" and buying for all 10 elementary school libraries at the same time.
So questions...
- Is the premium we are paying for getting titles in e-book format worth it? Will classroom teachers use the multiple readers at one time to supplement their reading programs? Will parents access these materials from home to encourage independent reading? Do we have enough devices for students on which these titles can be read?
- Will this format appeal to and support some readers better than might print materials? Will we make readers out of students with whom we previously have not had success?
- Should a part of the cost of these materials be born by the curricular area that they support since they may be used as classroom readers?
- Can library programs afford NOT to experiment with e-books, especially as all classes begin to use online materials to support instruction? Will we be viewed as irrelevant?
- What can we (school librarians) do to increase fair prices and liberal use policies from publishers, especially for popular titles in demand by students? Is ALA working with children and young adult book publishers, or just those for adult readers? What can our state school library associations or local units of government do?
AASL, ISTE SIGMS, are you listening? Readers, what actions have you taken to obtain fair access and prices to e-books for your school libraries?
Lookin' for help here!
1. http://www.npr.org/2013/08/05/209114978/e-books-strain-relations-beween-libraries-publishing-houses
Reader Comments (6)
Doug,
You have many great questions for all to ponder. I jumped into the ebook promotion last year In a middle school of 670 students in early Dec. By the end of the school year reports indicated we had roughly 1,200 eBook transactions. I believe our students are ready and eager. We just need to lead the way.
Another factor to consider is weeding. Even though they don't wear out or get damaged, even e-books will go out of date or be supplanted by more interesting editions or titles. So there's what you've called the "bang for you buck" factor at play there too. For us, regular books still outweigh ebooks for the most part when it comes to that aspect.
I started buying ebooks for our four schools the year before last. Thus far I have learned I need to do a LOT of promotion, that buying single-user titles irritates and confuses teachers, that despite my assumption that cross-platform, cross-device is the appropriate choice financially, I still get parents wanting Kindle books, Nook books, etc. I learned that even cruddy text-to-speech is better than no audio availability (sure would be nice if I could see that before I purchased them, I'm looking at you , Follett.). I've learned that pricing is hugely variant and mostly unfair (4 schools is only 2000 students, and with 2 pK-2s, one 4-5, one 6-8, it's not cool to have to buy four copies to get unlimited simultaneous use of a junior high book). I've learned that teachers want the books with bells and whistles even though I have concerns over changes in the reading brain when books are more like the web and less like print. I've learned not to buy books with Flash because they just won't work with our iPads, despite all sorts of flash-will-work apps. I've learned that Scholastic can make more money marketing Storia to teachers than they can by playing with me, and teachers will blame me for not having the Storia functionality (just when I'd finally talked them out of AR!). I've learned that there are more cruddy ebooks available than I ever thought possible. I learned that no matter how many titles I buy and how closely I work with teachers to select titles that will fit with a specific unit or lesson, lots won't get used, and it will take some time to build up enough titles to make most students and teachers want to use them, or rely on them.
I long for ebooks that can be easily managed through our library catalog even when I don't buy them from the ILS vendor. I long for the management functions of Storia for use with my library catalog. I long for a way to make an eBook purchase as financially sensible as a hardcover book. But my budgets are healthy, and since the library money comes from curriculum money, I haven't felt it necessary to ask curriculum areas to contribute, although I do ask for different money to purchase something for a "classroom set", whether that's in print or electronic. I have found that buying ebooks is easier than getting print materials through a grant, so I shamelessly write grant applications for that all the time. Sadly, I have learned that our ebooks are more valuable to me and to my continued position as a librarian than they are to our students and faculty, but I hope to soon reach the critical mass of titles where teachers and students will be using the books effectively.
It sounds like my issues with ebooks are the same as all of ours and I appreciate the thoughtful conversation about positives and negatives as opposed to cheerleading. Lovely questions.
Hi Sue,
I personally think the time is ripe in our district based on our 1:1 and BYOD initiatives, the emphasis on nonfiction reading in the common core, an emphasis on differentiation, and growing use of the CMS (Moodle). Seems like a perfect storm of need for e-books and if our libraries don't get moving, we'll be lost.
Thanks for the comment!
Doug
Hi Ninja,
Good point. I don't think most of us have considered all the aspects of e-book provision including selection, collection development, promotion, assessment and weeding - just like what we do now with print. Too new and shiny perhaps?
Doug
Hi Kate,
I can't tell you how much I appreciate this reply - the real voice of experience and reality. I am sure you speak for many, many of the brave souls pioneering e-books aggressively in libraries.
Would you mind if I took this well-written comment and promoted it to a guest blog post? Would you like a chance to look it over first?
Thanks for considering this,
Doug
Dear Doug,
Your post has a lot to think about, and so I'm going to try to answer some of the questions from my point of view. Bear with me as I try to weave them into my school's story.
Sadly, coming from California where so many school libraries have next to no budget, I thank goodness there are school libraries like yours out there that are doing what they can to work through these issues and share advice with the rest of us, since, I think we school libraries definitely will be perceived as irrelevant if we don't participate in the inevitable growth of ebook use. I do have some budget money at my high school library, so I have been doing what I can in my small world to explore the options over the last three years.
I started with a small selection of popular fiction from Follett, but have found so far that, even with promotion, there is very little usage. I think that ebooks may work to inspire some struggling or reluctant readers, and the various features such as adjusting font size, allowing for dictionary lookups, adding notes, and searching can certainly aide in comprehension for them. However, I think most students at my school who already like to read still prefer print for independent pleasure (mostly fiction) reading. I next purchased a few unlimited use non-fiction titles from ABC-CLIO and Mackin. These are getting better usage, since students can find them in my catalog and pathfinders when they are doing research projects. I do plan to buy more of these, but wish there was a bigger and better selection of titles I can really feel confident will be used, as for example, all the decades books in my library are, since they are required for multiple class projects. One of the things I think we need to be asking of our vendors is to get more of the titles we need in electronic form, since many titles or topics I want aren't available.
For this coming fall, I am trying another option: I am subscribing to EBSCO's eBook High School Collection, a set of 5,300 unlimited use, downloadable recent non-fiction titles that I can also import records for into my Destiny catalog. I learned about this option from Joyce Valenza’s blog post last March, and did a trial in the spring. I know that these will "go away" in a year unless I resubscribe, but I also figure that I could easily spend the $1795 annual fee on print books and have them barely put a dent in the new material needs of my students. I also know that, unless their teachers require seeing a print book in their hands, they almost all prefer electronic sources for research. So, I don't see subscriptions as an answer for fiction, but I do think this may be my own library's best solution for non-fiction right now. The success of the EBSCO formula, of course, depends on vendors like EBSCO getting publishers willing to participate.
As to what we can do to increase fair prices and liberal use policies from publishers, I think our best bet is to keep letting our vendors know our needs, and having AASL to play a part in ALA's work to assure that ALA hears the special needs of school libraries. Again, I am very grateful for the pioneer school librarians like you out there who are doing a lot of the much-needed experimenting and writing about it to help the rest of us.
Hi Jane,
Thanks for sharing your experiences and thoughts. In a time of transition (such as from print to non-print), it's almost impossible to tell how quickly to move and in what directions. That's why sharing one's experience - positive and not-so positive with the larger library community is critical. Why should all of us have to make the same discoveries?
We are focusing primarily on non-fiction for the same reasons you mention. I bristle at paying subscription costs for books, but I may need to get over it.
Thanks again,
Doug