Notes on LJ & SLJ 2012 Library Ebook Usage Reports

I am glad to read LJ & SLJ 2012 Library Ebook Usage Reports. I wrote down some facts that especially impressed me when I read the "Academic Library" and "Public Library" parts. (see below)

An impression I had about the general US library eBook market is that eBook is a much more urgent reality for public libraries than for academic libraries. I am really surprised to see the collection and circulation numbers in public libraries this year, which are increasing in a much faster speed than I expected. (Circulation number from 11,000 last year to 44,000 this year, WOW!) Another difference here is public awareness, low level of awareness is a bigger problem for academic libraries.

But on the other hand, it's interesting to see that eBooks represent a higher percentage of acquisition budgets in academic libraries than public libraries. I am not sure how much of the difference can be explained by the limited budgets of public libraries. But clearly, budget is a huge issue in a broader term.

For library eBooks, I cannot agree more with a comment by Professor Dave Lankes, that publishers will not sell eBooks to us just because we complain. We should actually do something more constructive.

Like my previous post mentioned, OA is definitely something all libraries must participate in unity as soon as possible. Some libraries are adopting the eBook model developed by Douglas County Public Library, but more libraries should join, because it ensures that libraries own the eBooks rather than just subscribing them. Moreover, libraries should participate the campaigns on Unglue.It to unglue eBooks to public domain. It doesn't take each participants a lot of money; but if more people/libraries can join, we will definitely have more free resources in the future.

My note:

Academic Library:

• There are no dramatic changes in this field after 2010. And the relationship between vendors and libraries are not more contentious. 
• EBooks represent 9.6% of academic libraries acquisition budgets; and participants predict that the number will increase to 19.5% by 2017.
• 83% of the institutions say they purchase eBooks of "perpetual access" (which may or may not mean that the library own the eBook); 71% choose "subscription".
• The percentage of institutions which are using PDA increase from 16% two years ago to 31% in this survey.
• 52% of the participants identify low perception as the barrier to user eBook access, which has been lower since 2010. But 50% of the participants say that users prefer print, which has been increasing after 2010.

Public Library:

• The mean number of eBooks offered by libraries increase from 4,350 last year to 10,000 this year, while circulation increase from 11,000 last year to 44,000 this year. 
• EBook reader (90%) is the dominating device used by library members to read eBooks borrowed from public libraries; tablet (66%) is the second most used device. 24% of the public libraries lend eBook reader for home use.
• Physical barriers are the most important barriers to eBook access, like the long time to wait and limited number of eBooks available.

Kevin Dames on Library Pirate Paradigm

As the last session of the "Lawyers, Librarians, and Pirates" conference (hashtag:  #unysla) organized by Upstate New York Chapter of SLA, K. Matthew Dames, who is currently the Copyright & Information Policy Adviser in Syracuse University, gave an insightful yet informative presentation about copyright, the construct of policy, the shift of paradigms as well as how libraries can survive in such an environment. 

By tracing the US history since 1970s, Mr. Dames stated that after intellectual property replaced manufacturing as the foundation of the US economy, intellectual actually took the form of traditional property, namely, intellectual property became something that can be owned and controlled exclusively, which is still the case nowadays. In order to gain a bigger market share across the world, American businesses and government constructed the idea of pirate and push the concept to other countries, which resulted the effect that is called "normalization of copyright laws" by the presenter.

On the other hand, the culture in the library is characterized as free and as transparent as possible. So the presenter identifies the conflicts between the piracy model as well as the free model in the libraries. Even though the side of libraries seems to win in recent events like Cambridge University Press v. Georgia State University, Authors Guild v. HathiTrust as well as Random House's recent claim that libraries own their eBooks, it is clear that the distribution chain of digital contents doesn't necessarily include any middleman, libraries being one of them; and what's more, middlemen are actually being killed in the market. 

For Mr. Dames, since the reformation of copyright law is almost impossible based on his observation, the only way library can survive in the market, or even reverse the market, is to adopt the Open Access model. But since the future of Open Access is totally open, and it's almost certain to come in the future, recently, Copyright Clearance Center are helping publishers to transform from traditional publishing models to Open Access model, because publishers understand that, the only way to predict the future is to create it, which is exactly what libraries should do in order to play a bigger role in tomorrow's world of digital content. 

Another point Mr. Dames made is that libraries have the furthest distance away from publishers, however, they are also the nearest to library members in the chain. As a result, libraries should figure out how to better serve the members. And moreover, libraries should become publishers themselves, not only in order to take control of the contents, but also to become more familiar with the general process of publishing.