A workshop on libraries and ebooks was held with Skip Dye, VP, Library and Academic Sales, Random House; George Coe, President, Library & Education, Baker-Taylor; Barbara Genco, Manager, Special Projects, Library Journal; Stephanie Anderson, Head of Readers Advisory, Darien Library; and Heather McCormack, Collection Development Manager, 3M Cloud Library.
Genco showed some interesting statistics from a survey that was just completed. 89% of libraries offer ebooks and the 2012 expenditures on ebooks could hit $90 million. 71% of readers who borrow ebooks use the library for ebook discovery and 40% use the libraries ebook catalog for discovery. In an important statistic, 92% of ebook readers buy print books. Looking at the statistics presented at the workshop, it is clear that library patrons find the restrictions put on ebooks by most of the major publishers to be totally unacceptable. For example, 62% of patrons find it totally unacceptable that they can borrow an ebook only by going onsite to the library.
Random House said that it is clear to them that libraries are an important method of discovering books and are of a big help in first novels, especially. They feel that discovery in a library does lead to a purchase by the consumer. George Coe said that libraries process 3 billion transactions a year and that demand is 10 times what is offered in urban areas. He praised Random House for its library friendly policies and this was seconded by librarian Stephanie Anderson who said that most of the bestsellers currently available in ebook form come from Random House.
Paul Biba is a retired corporate international lawyer who has worked in 53 countries. Since he is a very fast reader he came to ebooks out of self-defense in order to avoid carrying a suitcase of books on his travels around the world. An early ebook adopter, he has read on Palms, Pocket PCs and practically every device that has been out there. After being a frequent contributor to TeleRead.com, the oldest ebook/epublishing blog on the net, Paul became TeleRead's Editor-in-Chief, a position he recently resigned. Send Paul an email to paulkbiba@gmail.com
