Presentation about the current situation (November 2013) regarding ebooks and e-lending in UK public libraries.

1. Ebooks in UK public libraries
Helen Leech
Surrey Library Service, and
Shelf Free (www.shelffree.org.uk)
@helenleech

2. Some statistics
Half of all adults now own a smartphone (Ofcom 2013)
One in four households now has a tablet (Ofcom 2013)
23% of Americans read an e-book in 2012 (Pew)
We think seven out of ten Surrey residents has a device on which
they can e-read
PwC think the ebook market is going to overtake the print
market by 2017
Charlie Redmayne of HarperCollins thinks the book market’s
going to settle at 50% digital (Telegraph)
Around a fifth of library authorities in the UK are still NOT
offering e-books
Surrey spends 2.6% of its bookfund on e-books

3. Our problem is…
Most bestsellers are published by the Big Six:
Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random
House and Simon and Schuster
Only HarperCollins, Hachette and Random House
“sell” to UK public libraries
HarperCollins has a controversial 26 loan limit
Random House only sells backstock

4. Ebooks to us means…
Overdrive, Askews and Public Library Online (with WF
Howes, Bolinda and Peters just entering the market)
Popular fiction and non-fiction – not e-audio
One user, one loan
Epub and pdf
Digital Rights Management software is normally Adobe
Digital Editions…
… which means no downloading on library computers
No integration with the catalogue. Third parties only

5. What’s Surrey doing that’s special?
E-book and e-reader awareness for staff
“Which e-reader?” petting zoo and “help!”
sessions for the public
Big Push staff promotion
E-newsletter to 160k members
Lending kobos to ex-mobile users

6. Friction…
http://prezi.com/kc62gmbp1wc4/how-to-download-alibrary-e-book-onto-your-e-reader/

7. A little history of car-crash e-lending
Overdrive arrives in the UK around 2009
Surrey libraries’ ebook collection launches in 2010
with a hugely successful campaign targetting
commuters
“Anybody, anywhere”
Overdrive’s controversial relationship with Amazon
Penguin, Random House withdraw from Overdrive
Beginning of the Dark Age of e-lending

8. Help!
Rise of the Society of Chief Librarians’ digital / ebook
group
Discussions with the Publishers’ Association
The Reading Agency’s digital marketing initiative
Shelf Free (www.shelffree.org.uk)

9. Signs of a thaw
All Party Parliamentary Group October 2012
Random House release backstock November 2013
Sieghart Review April 2013
Sieghart pilots October 2013

10. What are the Sieghart pilots trying to
find out?
“A key recommendation was that a series of pilots be
constructed to test remote elending, based on one user,
one copy and that copy would deteriorate after an
agreed number of loans. The pilots are intended to
provide publishers, authors, agents and libraries with
an evidence base to assess what happens to lending
and purchasing behaviour in those areas.”
(Society of Chief Librarians and the Publishers Association InvitationTo
Tender, September 2013)

11. The future’s brightening
National workshop in November
EBLIDA campaign, supported by CILIP
The rise of the tablet
The rise of the app
Library Management System developments

12. We need to start talking about …
The rise of self-publishing
Patron Driven Acquisition
The ethics of using our customer data
How much control we want over the relationship with
publishers
Public Lending Right

13. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ

14. Thank you!
Helen Leech
shelffree@gmail.com
Shelffree.org.uk