ereolen : hsitory and lending models

Folkebibliotekernes ebogsservice

Lending and digitisation models for "eReolen"- the Danish public libraries' ebook service

Mikkel Christoffersen, senior adviserCopenhagen Libraries and eReolen

DFFU conference, October 2nd 2015


Disclaimer

Views expressed today are personal and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Danish public libraries or eReolen as association!


Me• BA in English and Greek, Copenhagen University• MLIS from Royal School of Library and Information Science• 3 years of assistant professor and Ph.D. student• Adviser at the Danish Agency for Library and Media and

Denmark’s Electronic Research Library (DEFF)• Representative to the Member States’ Expert Group on

digitisation and digital culture, DG Connect, Luxembourg• Senior adviser at Copenhagen Libraries • Responsibilities include eReolen, digitisation of the

collections and the overall digital strategy


Agenda• History• Setup• Status• Lending and business models• Statistics• Controversy and debate• Digitisation efforts• The future


What is eReolen?• eReolen is the Danish public libraries’ joint ebook and digital

audio books service• It’s an association with all Danish public libraries as

members, an organisation with lots of paid and voluntary employees, and a web site and Android and iOS apps

• There are 11,500 ebooks and 4,500 digital audio books• 250+ publishers supply the material from 1000+ authors


PreludeBasic lending models in order of lessening restrictions:*,**

1. License model: One copy one user. Mimics a physical item. The license may have any number of loans before expiry and the price of the license may be calculated several ways

2. Click model: ”Unrestricted use” … but not really. May be restricted by a set number of maximum loans per year.

3. Subscription model: Real unrestricted use. Also bypasses local restrictions. Libraries pay once a year.

* Local restrictions apply** Models are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive


History• eReolen opened 2011 as a Ministry of Culture co-funded

project. Most publishers joined; everything was click-based.• After the summer of 2012 the big publishers pulled out

citing sinking sales as eReolen took off.• The 7 biggest publishers created the alternative all-license

service EBIB and offered it to libraries, who were divided.• EBIB was never a succes, and the main reason was both

surprising and heartening• From late 2013 to late 2014 negotiations were held

continuously to once again join everyone on eReolen.


2012 eReolen


EBIB: The good, the bad …• Bad: Queing is a hard sell online. ”But, dude, it’s an ebook!”

It’s just not in the media’s nature. • Good: Controlling costs was a dream!• Bad: EBIB had no real promotion or other content. It didn’t

”take” with librarians. • Good: Promotional, educational work by librarians is still

essential in an online world!• Ugly: Libraries built up a digital stockpile of un-used digital

loans. Bizarre and expensive.


eReolen; hardly the victorNumber of loans Nov-2011 to Nov-2014


Unique users / Unique titles loaned

03-05-2023

Nov/11

Dec/11Jan

/12

Feb/12

Mar/12

Apr/12

May/12

Jun/12Jul/1

2

Aug/12

Sep/12

Oct/12

Nov/12

Dec/12Jan

/13

Feb/13

Mar/13

Apr/13

May/13

Jun/13Jul/1

3

Aug/13

Sep/13

Oct/13

Nov/13

Dec/13Jan

/14

Feb/14

Mar/14

Apr/14

May/14

Jun/14Jul/1

4

Aug/14

Sep/14

Oct/14

Nov/14

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

Unikke lånte titler

Unikke lånerkort


Titles available / Unique titles loaned

03-05-2023

nov-11

jan-12

mar-12

maj-12

jul-12

sep-12

nov-12

jan-13

mar-13

maj-13

jul-13

sep-13

nov-13

jan-14

mar-14

maj-14

jul-14

sep-14

nov-14

Total

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

LånUnikke lånte titlerUnikke lånerkortAntal titler


Loans per user

03-05-2023

Nov/11

Jan/1

2

Mar/12

May/12

Jul/12

Sep/12

Nov/12

Jan/1

3

Mar/13

May/13

Jul/13

Sep/13

Nov/13

Jan/14

Mar/14

May/14

Jul/14

Sep/14

Nov/14

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

3.00

Lån pr. bruger


The old eReolen• Bad: Losing a boat-load of great content from the big

publishers turned librarians off. It didn’t take with them.• Maybe good: Is an ebook-platform with everything non-

commercial possible today if librarians go for it?• Good: The catastrophe raised a new generation of digital

audiobooks listeners, but that’s beside the point today• Good: Controlling costs became easier, because there were

fewer and fewer patrons … which is actually bad.• Ugly: A dwindling crowd of desperate users searched

frantically for new content.


The union• In early 2014, eReolen became an association• All Danish libraries are members• One size fits all• Good for taking responsibility, learning, knowledge

sharing and as negotiating partner• Great for digitisation efforts

• In early 2015, the big publishers came back, because an accord was reached; a compromise

• The digital audio books were wholly integrated with surprising effects


The compromise• eReolen acknowledges that publishers need to protect their

markets; especially for new titles• Publishers acknowledge that eReolen does not want the

license model as the major model• Most new titles are put in a license model for the first 6

months, then moved to a click model• Some start in the click model right away, a few exceptions

never leave the license model (steady sellers)• Licenses have 4 loans. The price of the licens is retail price.• Licenses are bought nationally; loans distributed locally


The license model• Invented by HarperCollins in the US• One copy one user with a set amount of loans• Harper-Collins 26, in Denmark 4(!)• Denmark may have the most liberal ebook models but they

are also the most expensive!• ”Denmark is a different kind of market!” Well, in Estonia

they get 20. In Slovenia 52.• Mimics a physical book and with a fixed loan period• Librarians were wrong about the model initially


HarperCollins quiz• Librarians predicted that the Harper-Collins model would

exhaust the 26 loans* very quickly and bankrupt the library buying new licenses. However, after more than 18 months only eight titles were exhausted. Seven of them were by the same author. Who?

* 26 was picked (probably), because the loan period is two weeks and so 26 loans is a year.


Agatha Christie!Only the Bible and Shakespeare have been published in more editions

1 bn. Sold in English. Another billion in non-English

HarperCollins bought the rights in 2010


Also …• A broad-based expert group was established with eReolen,

publishers and libraries in January 2015• How can we promote the use of the back catalogue and

move attention and use away from the new titles?• In June and more so in August 2015 the big publishers

publicly complained that there was too little use of their new titles, too much use of the back catalogue and generally declining sales

• People select available things and will not queue up or buy like they’re supposed to do


Prices• For all loans: 1,50 DKK to eReolen, 1,50 DKK to Publizon• Licenses: Retail price for 4 loans. 1 loan costs retail price / 4.

We don’t buy licenses costing more than 135 DKK. E.g. a license is 100 DKK; each loan is 25 + 3 DKK.

• Click: Fixed priced based on age. 0-6 months 14,50 DKK, 7-24 months 13,00 DKK, 24+ months 10,50 DKK (+ 3 DKK all)

• Subscription: Still experimental. Libraries pay one sum for some part of a publisher’s catalogue. Typically everything except new stuff. Price is based on this years use.


The association ”eReolen”

Board

Editorial group Support Selection*

Project coordination Negotiation

team

General assembly


Setup

Publisher Data well

Selection OPAC eReolen

Publizon

Book sellers

National Bibliography

An offer


Loans monthly ebooks


Number of ebooks


Unique users monthly


The data horror show• We use patron library ID numbers• Patron library ID numbers are almost always identical to the

their social security number• The law is very, very, very strict when it comes to the use of

social security numbers• Getting data, working with data, correlating data from

different systems is a nightmare• Who are the users? Are they identical to the physical users?

Do we create new users?


Time of day

05 - 06

06 - 07

07 - 08

08 - 09

09 - 10

10 - 11

11 - 12

12 - 13

13 - 14

14 - 15

15 - 16

16 - 17

17 - 18

18 - 19

19 - 20

20 - 21

21 - 22

22 - 23

23 - 24

00 - 01

01 - 02

02 - 03

03 - 04

04 - 05

0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

Udlån fordelt på tidspunkt

Total

Tidspunkt

Anta

l


Gender

Kvinde Mand0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

Udlån fordelt på køn

Total

Køn

Anta

l


Gender and media use

Kvinde

Mand

0 10000 20000 30000 40000 50000 60000 70000

Udlån fordelt mellem køn og udlånsmedie

E-bogLydbog

Antal

Køn


User age

< 15 år 16-19 år 20-24 år 25-29 år 30-34 år 35-39 år 40-44 år 45-49 år 50-54 år 55-59 år 60-64 år > 65 år #VÆRDI!0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

Udlån fordelt på alder

Total

Alder

Anta

l


Status October 2015• eReolen has taken off again to the joy of some and the

horror of others.• As an interesting aside, nobody can stop the freight train of

digital audio books!• Once again newspapers and cultural news shows often

feature publishers, library people and talk of eReolen and more generally, what is the role of the public library and where is the ebook market going and with whom?

• However! This is all or mostly about adult fiction


Politiken

August 31st 2015

The story was followed by several other media, press releases, open letters and what-nots


Status cont.• eReolen is mostly fiction and non-fiction of a non-scholarly

nature (hobbies, self-help, popular history etc.)• We are not offered series such as Gyldendal Business• Plenty of drama just dealing with adult fiction and children’s

books• The growing problem with primary schools• The growing problem with students • The battle for digital rights waged right now


Other questions• Could we go back to the Dark Ages (i.e. last year)? Yes• Would we want to? No• What would we do?• Narrow literature• Indie authors• Anglo-American ebooks

• Is it entirely up to us? No• So everything’s fine now? No … some big publishers are

unhappy (but 200 smaller ones are not)


Cont.• Public libraries have encouraged reading and promoted

literature for a century• Reading is under pressure from other media that do not show

the same beneficial effects that reading does!• Reading is the skill that underlies most other skills!• We’re just an app among many other brightly coloured apps• If users don’t get what they want, they move. If there is no

eReolen or the offer is terrible, do they move to commercial alternatives or do they move to other media?

• What happens to reading and Danish literature and language?


Primary schools• Some primary schools do not seem to understand that

eReolen is not supposed to be used for ”class sets”• Pretty evident from use statistics• Schools move costs to the public library and in any case

eReolen contracts are only for ”normal library use”• Projects to address the situation is about to be launched


Students• A bit of a spill-over effect• Twice a year public libraries are attacked by swarms of

students of various kinds• We don’t have the necessary ebooks in Danish• But we have lots and lots of British/American ebooks• Can we digitise our way out of this and design models that

are mutually beneficial for publishers and libraries?


Normal digitisation efforts• We want to transform the library in step with the changing

reading habits of users• This requires ebooks and a digitally available back catalogue• We worry about the stability of the supply• No digital lending rights and changing policies from

publishers• We have two models in mind: Collaboration with publishers

for newer stuff. Collective agreements or collaboration for the older stuff.


The potential


Digitising & windows-based lending models• With wildly fluctuating, seasonally based demands for some

scholarly titles, none of our existing lending models are any good, because they’re designed to deal with different issues

• Public libraries do not strive to be neither main nor subsidiary branche to research libraries

• We’ve come up with a model called the loan window model


The loan window model• For titles that are wildly popular once or twice a year, we

want to digitise them if they are not available as ebooks already.

• Then we specify windows of time where we can make them available – say May & June, November & December

• The model for these windows could be a variation of the license model with shorter loans

• How many sales would this lose for the publishers?


Thank you!

… for making it all the way to here. Questions and comments are always welcome at:

Mikkel ChristoffersenMob. +45 2049 1885

[email protected]

ereolen : hsitory and lending models

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