Progress in e-lending

For many people working in public libraries, March and April of this year brought welcome changes to the e-lending debate and it seems as if finally, some progress is being made.

The UK Government published its recommendations about e-lending in March. Named the Sieghart review, the report has effectively altered the tone of the conversation around e-lending and already we are seeing changes. E-books in libraries are still a very new development worldwide. OverDrive’s first entry into libraries was in 2003, in America. In the UK, public libraries only started lending e-books five years ago with OverDrive followed by Bloomsbury and Askews. Today, according to an article by Helen Leech on futurebook.net, two-thirds of UK public library services offer e-books and the third that don’t give three reasons for non participation: “the poor range of stock available, the volatility of the technology and the market, and the set-up costs.”

“But things are looking up”, says Helen. “Shortly before Christmas, Random House released its backstock to Overdrive, which provided welcome content just in time for those people who were given e-readers for Christmas. And now the Sieghart Review has recognised the importance of the public library service in the reading chain and the need for services to keep pace with people’s reading habits, recommending that e-lending is free and that downloading be possible remotely, which is something that most public librarians feel passionately about.”

The IFLA released their background paper on e-lending on the 1st April. The document defines a set of principles to guide library professionals as they grapple with the complicated process of negotiating e-book licenses with publishers and resellers. The paper was created to help all library professionals seeking to provide downloadable e-book content to their users, and is broadly drafted to maintain relevance across IFLA’s 150 member countries.

The preamble to the review published on the IFLA website, notes that commercial dissemination of written content in digital form has imposed a new and challenging reality for libraries, publishers, authors and readers.

“Libraries are confronting the new reality where in many instances they are constrained from acquiring commercially available e-books for their collections under acceptable terms and conditions due to the rights holders’ belief that they can control subsequent uses of digital works which are sold or licensed,” it continues.

It goes on to say that “should publishers/authors persist in withholding the licensing or sale of e-books to libraries, IFLA believes that publishers/authors should be required in legislation to make available e-books to libraries under reasonable terms and conditions. In jurisdictions where there is government financial support for publishers and authors, there is an especially strong argument to be made that societal access to published works through libraries should be mandated by government.”

The report sets out the following principles:

According to reports, a series of pilot projects between publishers and libraries this year, using established literary events, will test business models and user behaviours to help provide a solid evidence base for going forward.

No country as yet has a settled policy on e-lending. The Sieghart Review is the first of its kind. Other governments are waiting for publishers to set their terms. In America, where around three-quarters of public libraries lend e-books, each of the “big six” publishers has a different policy. Simon & Schuster only signed a deal with 3M and the NYPL to distribute e-books into libraries in mid April, after the Sieghart Review was published. Hachette Book Group also announced in April that, beginning May 8, it will make its full e-book catalog, including new releases, available to nonprofit public and school libraries across the US. HarperCollins’s e-books expire after they have been lent 26 times. At the 80 libraries where Penguin is offering a pilot e-lending programme, licences for its e-books expire after a year. Other publishers want to apply the limitations of printed books to digital ones. For example, some want public libraries to replace e-books periodically, just as they have to do with real books that get dirty and torn.

In South Africa, e-lending is in its early days. So far there are two public library networks that subscribe to OverDrive.

“One of the major advantages of OverDrive is their very strong digital rights department which manages all copyright and licensing issues,” says Kirston Hoets of Booktalk the official reseller of OverDrive in SA.

“Currently, OverDrive work with over 1500 publishers, a number that continues to increase. OverDrive carries a million plus digital titles (and growing) in their Content Reserve (online catalogue) in America. In the South African Content Reserve context there are over 300 000 titles with thousands of new titles added monthly. As subscription support grows in a territory OverDrive works and negotiates with local publishers to include their digital titles in the relevant OverDrive Content Reserve.”

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has been working with OverDrive for 18 months now and is proud to advertise that e-books and audiobooks are available 24/7 from their library website and all the library member needs is an internet connection and a reading device to access the e-media library from anywhere. The service went live to the public in July 2012, and is keen to promote itself as a portal to information in any format, says Karlien de Klerk, Head Libraries :Technical Services Sub-Directorate: Arts, Culture and Libraries Economic Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipal Libraries.

“New titles are added to the site every month, and with the number of smart phones owned by scholars and students increasing, the service is now adding young adult books to its offering. The number of regular users is now at 495 and growing as the selection of books for loan increases. The main advantage to the user is access 24 hours a day, no fines for late returns, and saving fuel by not having to drive to the library,” she says.

The Free State Provincial Library Services joined up with Overdrive in November last year and has made the service available to all registered library users in the province.

“Users can access the service from the comfort of the homes and we have also started with a programme to provide e-readers that users can use in libraries to access the online titles,” says Jacomien Schimper, director of the Freestate Library Services.
In May, OverDrive and Sourcebooks launched an innovative and ambitious pilot program whose goal is to clearly demonstrate the impact library e-book lending has on book sales and author recognition.

OverDrive sent a letter in early May to about 35,000 librarians worldwide and invited them to opt in to a program that was set to run May 15 through June 1 and allow all participating libraries to feature simultaneously on their OverDrive home page, at no cost, a single title from Sourcebooks. The book was Four Corners of the Sky by Michael Malone.

“We want to demonstrate once and for all the enormous influence of the library demographic, and that when libraries put an e-book in their catalog it serves a valuable role in increasing exposure and engagement with an author’s work,” said Steve Potash, OverDrive’s CEO.
During the 18-day program, data associated with the title was set to be closely tracked. Sourcebooks, which has worldwide rights to the book, chronicled the impact on sales not only for this particular title but also the effect on the other seven books that Malone has published with Sourcebooks. The Amazon rankings were also set to be monitored. Michael Kelly on lj.libraryjournal.com reported on the 3rd May that Four Corners of the Sky had an Amazon Best Sellers Rank of 149,512. OverDrive and Sourcebooks were set to present early results at BookExpo America (BEA) which was underway at the time of going to print.

In a press release issued by the Department for Culture, Media & Sport in the UK, Minister Ed Vaizey MP, said that the lending of e-books by public libraries will enhance library services for users, but the interests of booksellers and publishers must be protected too.

“The public library service is changing. And e-lending represents one of many technological developments that can help it meet the increasingly high expectations of their membership. I welcome William Sieghart’s review, and hope that all those engaged in the sector can play their part in moving forward the proposed developments,” he said.

The Author Willaim Sieghart, said ” The UK publishing industry is undergoing a digital revolution, the full impact of which will transform the structure of publishing, bookselling and book borrowing, whether we like it or not. What this means for each participant, whether they are a writer, agent, publisher, wholesaler, retailer, librarian or reader, is as yet unclear.”

“What is certain is that the industry is changing very quickly and each one of these stakeholders has a right to feel anxious. It is easy to focus on the challenges posed by digital developments, rather than of the opportunities offered. This review, published today, does not try to predict the future for the industry as a whole. It is more narrowly focused on the issue of the lending of digital versions of books by public libraries, offering practical and realistic suggestions for how to manage this ‘revolution’ in a way that makes sense for all.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/review-of-e-lending-published

http://lj.libraryjournal.com/2013/05/technology/ebooks/overdrive-and-sourcebooks-to-launch-ambitious-ebook-data-experiment/?et_mid=616264&rid=90116997