E-books in Public Libraries:

Toward a digital future?

Carly Sharples

Why e-books?

Journey of the e-book

State of play

Money matters

Research questions

How are e-books provided by the selected public

library services?

What kind of usage do the library authorities have of

their e-books provision?

What do staff perceive to be the contribution of e-

books to their library service, and how has user

feedback informed this opinion?

Based on their perception of their e-book service,

what do staff feel is the likely contribution e-books

will make to public library services in the future?

Research Design

Service providers

“I really don’t think that the future of e-books

is to read on screen from a PC”

“there’s a growing proportion of people who

want to put them onto their device – their e-

book reader, even their phones…”

What’s popular?

“There’s the issues of relevant stock and

supply of current relevant stock – as in

popular British fiction for example.”

“It would be good for us if more young

people use our services, ironically because

they’re an age group that traditionally fall off

don’t they?”

Downloads and devices

“we saw a huge rise after Christmas

when people must have got either

iPhones or e-readers”

Publishers and power

“I can see the top ten bestsellers for kids

books and the adults books on Smiths, I

want that kind of stuff, why can’t I have that

stuff?”

“OverDrive are losing a lot of their – a lot of

the rights to their e-books in the States, so

I’ve no idea whether the e-books from

OverDrive will be sustainable in the longer

term.”

So who are the users?

“Well, we were expecting the main user group

to be teen – say 11 or 12….[but] I’m certainly

aware from questions we get asked that it

seems to be all ages.”

“We’re quite surprised by the number of quite

mature people, or pensioners, who are using

the service…when we launched the service our

impression was…we were marketing it to

people on the go.”

Future of the service

“If in a scenario where you have to rationalise

your library service, literally in terms of your

physical buildings…you’re going to have lots of

places where there used to be libraries and

there just isn’t one. I should have thought a

logical extension of that is that you beef up your

virtual services.”

“If we can’t sustain it, you know, funding

£15,000 from our book stock yearly, then

something has to give.”

Conclusions 1: a new way of working

Conclusions 2: a digital future?

The story continued…

Carly Sharples

University of East Anglia

@carlysharples

ReferencesSlide 2: CIMG1501 by Patrik Tschudin on Flickr

Slide 3: Rocketbook on Literacy Kicks [blog] http://www.litkicks.com/FallingOut/, Kindle2 from Guardian Technology blog http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2009/feb/08/amazon-ebooks-kindle2

Slide 4: OverDrive logo Lebanon, Indiana, Public Library http://bccn.boone.in.us/LPL/departments/av/index.html, PLO logo Cambridgeshire libraries http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/leisure/libraries/online.htm

Slide 5: Librarians against DRM Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/nodrm

Slide 6: British Money by Petr Kratochvil on PublicDomainPictures

Slide 8: Qualitative Research Design by Operadewa http://operadewa.wordpress.com

Slide 11: Smartphones on The Full Proof Blog http://www.full-proof.co.uk/Blog/10-great-smartphone-apps-for-freelancers/

Slide 15: Jigsaw puzzle from Christy Lee http://www.workwithchristy.com/jigsaw-puzzle-mentality/

Slide 16: Moving forward on Emotions Run Through [blog] http://emotionsrunthrough.blogspot.co.uk

Slide 17: Kindle logo from Amazon.co.uk, Penguin logo from Forbookssake.net, Harper Collins logo from Somerset College http://www.somerset.qld.edu.au, David Cameron and Nick Clegg from Guardian.co.uk

Quotations of findings all taken from: Sharples, C. (2011) E-books in public libraries: toward a digital future? MSc. University of the West of England.