E‐Books in Libraries – A Practical Guide

Citation

Marriott, F. (2012), "E‐Books in Libraries – A Practical Guide", Library Review, Vol. 61 No. 8/9, pp. 667-668. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531211292150

Although e‐books have been around for many years, it is only in the last five years that they have become “mainstream” library provision. If like me, you taught yourself the world of e‐books through surfing the internet, networking and reading every article that catches your eye, then you may feel you have not got a total grasp or overview of the subject.

This timely book will definitely help to fill in those gaps in your knowledge; it is an excellent textbook for complete novices, or those like me, who think they understand most aspects of e‐book provision. It would also be of great value to anyone studying librarianship and information studies, as this will be the world they enter with their professional career.

The book is divided into five parts:

1. 1.

   The production and distribution of e‐books.

2. 2.

   Planning and developing an e‐book collection.

3. 3.

   Delivering e‐books to library readers.

4. 4.

   Engaging readers with e‐books.

5. 5.

   The future of e‐books.

Each section is written by librarians or academics with substantial experience in their field. E‐book provision in both public and academic libraries is explored in detail; as a librarian who has only ever worked in the public sector, I found the sections on e‐book provision in university and college settings particularly enlightening. While you would assume that that the two customer groups have completely differing needs, they also have much in common. Technical issues prevail, many people dislike reading from computer screens, find the Digital Rights Management (DRM) issue frustrating, struggle with trying to use multiple platforms, or are irritated by the lack of a comprehensive collection.

In “The production and distribution of e‐books” there is an excellent contribution from Joel Claypool, outlining the real cost of e‐books, and effectively dismissing the argument that e‐books should be cheaper than physical books, just because they are not being printed on paper. Anna Grigson raises some interesting points about the long term preservation of e‐resources, such as what happens if your supplier goes bust? Having invested substantial resources in our own service, this was one eventuality I had not considered, but it is important. If you buy a physical book it is yours till it falls to pieces. For all our online services, we have to trust our supplier, rather than our own knowledge and procedures. Kate Price, in her chapter “E‐books for Free” raises another issue I had not considered in detail, that e‐book formats have changed rapidly and may continue to in the future. What if your formats are no longer supported, what if the digital files “degrade” and become unusable?

“Planning and developing an e‐book collection” has contributions from academic and public libraries. Martin Palmer discusses the reasons for establishing an e‐book service, and the potential audiences, such as remote users, commuters and hard to reach groups. The development of the tablet and smartphone market is helping to drive the interest in e‐books across the country, but the biggest take‐up of e‐readers is till those aged 40 and over. For libraries, the growth in e‐reader sales has driven up the number of downloads each month, and this is set to continue. Karen Foster and Emma Ransley make some interesting points about the use of e‐books in further education, including how useful the format can be for learners with disabilities such as visual impairment or dyslexia, as the text can be adapted easily to suit the individual needs. They also highlight an issue which appears in many chapters, that students often want to print out several pages, or copy and paste references into their work, and the DRM can prevent this, causing real frustration for learners.

The thorny subject of how you promote a collection that is “invisible” to the average reader is covered in “Delivering e‐books to library users”, presenting effective strategies to apply when there is nothing to display in the traditional sense. What is clear is that library staff have to be engaged and actively promoting the service, that customer training and awareness sessions are needed, and until the issues around multiple platforms and technical issues are resolved, this need will continue, if a service is to succeed.

“Engaging readers with e‐books” discusses reader attitudes to e‐books and how developing technology such as apps will change the market. Currently most e‐books are simply “copies” of the printed work, and only a few publishers have so far grasped the concept of the “enhanced e‐book”, with extra content and hypertext links that can extend the reading experience. Research from academic libraries shows that, as far as the students are concerned, the technology still has a long way to go.

In the fifth section the authors look to the future and try to establish how we will be using e‐books in the coming decade. The most optimistic visions hope that the DRM issue will be resolved, that new devices will make the reading experience as satisfying as the physical book experience and that e‐books will become as commonplace in the home as the TV or PC. The pace of development is so fast, that all of these may come to pass, but there are major issues to resolve before that can happen.

This is a comprehensive introduction to e‐books in libraries, and a good starting point for any librarian who needs to get to grips with the subject.