empowering the reader in a digital world
DESCRIPTION
Presented at the NEFLIN Technology Conference, June 16, 2011. Special thanks to Al Carlson for providing his segments for me to present.TRANSCRIPT
Empowering the Reader in a
Digital World
Chad Mairn, Novare Library Services
Program Goals
• Distinguish between dedicated and non-dedicated e-readers.
• Answer the “e-books: Fad or Trend?” question.
• Untangle the web of acronyms for e-publication (e-pub) formats and DRM schemes.
Program Goals
• Highlight e-pub’s strengths and weakness for libraries and for end users.
• Explore how e-textbooks fit in to this emerging landscape.
• Propose new models for library service in a digital environment.
Program Goals
• Provide you with some practical patron assisting tools.
• Give you some homework and an opportunity to change the world.
The form of the book has changed over time.
What is a Book?
What is a Book?
What is a Book?
What is a Book?
What is a Book?
The form of the book has changed over time.
The ‘book’ is the content, not the package!
So, what happens when the package undergoes a drastic
change?
Just as digital music turned this…
…into this
E-pub turns this…
…into this
So, will these be replaced by…
And what happened to
LPs? Are they dead?
Recap• A “book” is the content; an e-book is just the next new package.
• The new package will last until it is replaced by a better package. We won’t revert to the previous package.
• History suggests that—as libraries—we won’t be ready. Let’s be ready!
What is a Dedicated e-reader?
n models
A device optimized for reading eBooks– Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Sony Reader
What’s so special about them?
• Reflect light the way paper does (Outdoor reading).
• E-Ink has no backlighting so it is easier on the eyes and can be printed on any surface.
• Long battery life, especially if other features are turned off.
• Small format with huge capacity.
A few “dedicated” e-readers
Kindle 2 and Kindle DX
The Kindle DX can hold 3,500 books. If each title weighed 2.5 pounds then it could hold 4 tons of books (Information today, May 2010)
Barnes and Noble Nook
The Nook was the first eReader with digital lending between the Nook, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, BlackBerry, PC, Mac OS, and Android Smartphones.
Sony eReader
Copia e-readers are considered the “first social eReading experience designed so you can discover, connect and share what's meaningful.”
Skiff eReader
This mylar-infused sheet will hold an image
without power.
HP’s Flexible Display
What’s a non-dedicated e-reader
A device designed for some other, larger purpose that can also read e-publications.
– PC, Mac, iPad, netbook, iPhone, Android phones/tablets, Internet-enabled DVD players/TVs, gaming consoles etc.
Steve and his iPad
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ebooks/download-reader.asp
Some Android e-reader AppsLaputa
Google eBooks
KindleKobo
Which one is better?
Dedicated
• Excellent for extended reading and/or pleasure reading.
• You can “fall into” the book, and the mechanism does not interfere.
Non-dedicated
• Excellent for quick, casual reading.
• Can read while multitasking.
Is it OK to have both?
Yes!
So, what will e-readers look like a few years from now?
I have no idea …
Formats and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
ePublication Formats• We have an alphabet soup of formats:
– AZW, PDF, EPUB, MOBI, TXT, DJVU, LIT, etc.
• For a thorough explanation/comparison, see:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_e-book_formats
• The big ones for us are EPUB, PDF and AZW (Kindle).
• “Everyone” else uses EPUB and PDF– Microsoft uses LIT, but hardly anyone cares
Official ePub logo, International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF)
Libraries and format
• OverDrive uses the EPUB and PDF formats– Anyone not familiar with OverDrive?
• NetLibrary uses PDF, HTML, and DJVU formats for various documents. (EBSCO is changing this!)
– Anyone not familiar with “NetLibrary?”
Dueling Formats
The cassette/CD format difference is easy for our patrons to see and understand. But .EPUB
vs .AZW… ? Not so easy.
Dueling formats
AZW EPUB
If format were the only issue…
www.calibre-ebook.com
Same Format, Dueling DRMs
EPUB w/ Adobe’s ADEPT DRM EPUB w/ Apple’s FairPlay DRM
Dueling Formats and DRMs
AZW using Amazon’s DRM EPUB using Abode’s DRM
So, what’s this DRM thing?
• Digital Rights Management.
• A software “lock” that controls access to a file (e-book, e-music, e-movie). You must have the correct software “key” to unlock it.
Is DRM a good thing or is it an evil thing?
Yes!
• Like speed limits and banking regulations, DRM schemes can be a good thing and can protect an author’s livelihood.
• Like speed traps and unreasonable lending practices, DRM schemes can infuriate and frustrate our readers.
• DRM schemes are a possibly necessary evil.
• Current treebook check out is primitive DRM.
• DRM schemes can be beaten, and it’s not illegal to know how.
• We can be the e-book source with the least annoying DRM and often none at all.
I am upset! This is so frustrating! I
don’t care what it is called; I JUST WANT to read an eBook!
A reader who has figured it out
Recap• There are dedicated and non-dedicated e-
readers; both are wonderful.
• Any devices we see now will be quaint in a few years.
• E-publications come in a variety of (often) incompatible formats.
• They are protected by various forms of DRM.
E-pub and Public Libraries
How will e-pub affect Public Libraries?
• Access—Web site becomes “the” library• Old days--My library has a Web site!• Near future--My Web site still has a library!
• Delivery—Instant home delivery. No need to visit the library. Or wait.
• Delivery—Your costly, polluting, labor intensive inter-branch delivery vanishes.
How will e-pub affect Public Libraries?
• Overdues—Nope. – Book self-returns when due
• Storage—Your entire collection fits on a one or two terabyte hard drive.• About $50 per terabyte at CompUSA
• Service area—Why have a ‘local’ library?
How will e-pub affect Public Libraries?
• What happens to Ownership?– Storage on “OverDrive’s” servers
– Check out via “OverDrive’s” software
– Access via “NetLibrary” web site
(Are we sure that “we” own this book?)
How will (or does) e-pub affect Public Libraries?
• Publishers’ reluctance to sell to libraries
• Term limited e-books
• Limited range of vendors
OverDrive WIN• Eliminate the need to deal with various file formats.• Reduce staff time for collection development and
help-desk support.• Offer support for Kindle Library Lending.• Add in-copyright eBook samples for immediate
access.• Enable patron driven acquisition.• New 'always available' eBook collections for
simultaneous access. • Launch 'Open eBook' titles, free of DRM
Homework
• Devise or negotiate a purchasing plan that creates a “win” for publishers, vendors, librarians and patrons
• Hint: 90% of it already exists
Recap
• E-pub offers huge benefits to public libraries, but also some threats to libraries as we now envision them.
• We need to figure out how to exploit e-pub’s power without being destroyed by it.
Al & Chad Chad & Al
E-textbooks
Consider this e-textbook pricing breakdown …• 32.3% — Publisher’s paper, printing, and editorial costs
• 15.4% — Publisher’s Marketing Costs• 11.6% — Author Income• 10.9% — College Store Personnel• 10% — Publisher’s General and Administrative Expenses• 7% — Publisher’s Income (after tax)• 6.8% — College Store Operations• 4.9% — College Store Income (pre-tax)• 1.1% — Freight Expenses
Source: http://laurafreberg.com/blog/?p=13
32.3% (paper, printing) + 22.6% (college store) = 54.9% of the cost of textbooks. So, why aren’t we using eTextbooks?
E-textbooks
• 95 % of McGraw-Hill’s offerings are electronic, but their focus is on print. Why?
• 75% of college students surveyed prefer print textbooks, citing print’s look and feel + its permanence and ability to be resold. (Book Industry Study Group's Student Attitudes Toward Content in Higher Education survey, 2011)
• Torrent sites are starting to get more popular for e-textbooks (Isohunt, TheEbooksBay, TextbookTorrents, Piratebay, and on and on and on …)
E-textbooks• Electronic books will be widely adopted in college settings
within one to two years. (2011 Horizon Report)
• According to the National Association of College Stores only 3% of textbook sales are digital, but they expect it to grow to 10-15% by 2012. (Campus Technology, 3/2011)
• Florida looks at taking school textbooks completely digital by 2015 (St. Petersburg Times, 2/17/11)
• Profs: Kindle no threat to college textbooks: Students find e-reader cheaper but hard to use (Arizona Republic, 7/6/10)
Some e-textbook Options• CourseSmart’s “catalog includes over 90% of the core textbooks in
use today in North American Higher Education as eTextbooks …”
• Amazon.com has e-textbooks for Kindle, but they are limited (e.g., no color).
• CourseLoad integrates with Learning Management Systems and does not depend on specific devices for students to read and interact with the content.
• Flat World Knowledge is where “educators choose the book [and] students choose format and price.” Remixable e-textbooks.
• Inkling is brining content to the “iPad with interactivity, social collaboration and simple ease-of-use” and is going beyond the constraints of the printed book!
The Kno, textbook tablet
The Application requires 46MB of hard disk space; books range from 50KB to 1GB per title. (Source: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nookstudy
CourseSmart
Amazon.com
• Browser-based books = truly device agnostic!– With HTML 5 eBooks will become more interactive; content can be stored offline and then synced via the “cloud.”
• Books in Browsers 2010: The Future of Reading on the Web conference was held October 21, 2010 at the Internet Archive.
Looking ahead
Would a streaming Netflix-esque subscription model work for libraries or
would it bypass them?
Recap• E-books are powerful and complicated.
• They can fundamentally change libraries as we know them.
• Nobody fully grasps the full range of opportunities and threats they offer.
• Lots of people are bewildered and confused. So…
How should we—as Librarians—respond?
Appropriate Library Response to these Problems
• Issues like this that keep us relevant and employed.
• This is powerful and FUN!
• We are seeing evolution in action.
• Show me the rules that says “Libraries may not convert EPUB to AZW for patrons!”
• Or “Never, ever mention calibre or FeedBooks!”
How do we stay in the game?• OverDrive model
– We exist but with a changed role
• Amazon and Apple models– We don’t exist
• EBSCO NetLibrary model– We may exist. We don’t know yet.
• Other models– Maybe we should create our own
– Create a model right now…
Summary
• Good e-pub news– Thousands of free e-books– A MARC record makes it “yours”– Potential for dramatic cost decreases– Huge increase in ability to serve patrons– Opportunity for entirely new service models– Local authorship opportunities
More Homework
• Tell your vendors you want more lendable, downloadable e-books.
• Train your staff so that they are able to say, “We can help you with that!”
More Homework
• Find ways to cooperate with other libraries; location is now irrelevant.
• Invent and share ways to exploit e-pub’s digital nature in library environments.
• Start reading e-books and playing with Calibre (and related tools)
How can I learn more?
• Visit: http://sites.google.com/a/tblc.org/digital-delight
• Visit: http://sites.google.com/site/epublishingtrendstblc/
• Google “sources of free e-books”
• Pay attention to what’s going on! (Hint: HarperCollins etc.)
Twitter Stream
© SAP 2009 / Page 88
Empowering the Reader in a
Digital World
NEFLIN Technology Conference, 6/17/11Chad Mairn, Novare Library Services
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