More ebook news from the Twittersphere – Ursula K Le Guin on “Why Your Library May Not Have the E-Book You Want” and ARL on ebook licencing

From the latest twitter search on #ebooks and #libraries -

Respected author Ursula K Le Guin has blogged on Why Your Library May Not Have the E-Book You Want and tells readers:

So, dear reader, if your library doesn’t have the e-book you’d like to read, please don’t complain to your librarian. Complain to your publisher. Tell him to wake up and get real.

Meanwhile at the academic end of the spectrum InfoDocket has led us to this paper:

E-book licencing and research libraries – negotiating priniples and price in an emerging market by Charles B Lowry and Julia C Blixrud

from the Association of  Research Libraries (ARL)  (IN Research Library Issues, no. 280 (September 2012)).  The article explains how they developed principles for ebook licencing  and includes a Research Library Statement on Ebooks

“Califa Launches Enki, a Lending Platform for Direct Ebook Distribution”

As reported in The Digital Shift the much anticipated open source ebook platform has arrived with the beta launch of Enki.

The Califa Library Group and Contra Costa County Library (CCCL) today officially announced the beta launch of Enki Library, a new ebook platform designed to host and lend library-managed ebooks using the Douglas County model. Named after the Sumerian god of mischief, creativity, and intelligence, Enki went live at CCCL and the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) on May 6, and will soon serve multiple libraries in California, beginning with members of the Bay Area Library and Information System (BALIS) consortium.

The Digital Shift, May 20 2013

As well as being

Named after the Sumerian god of mischief, creativity, and intelligence

Enki is also a rather nice anagram of e ink.

ebook news roundup – Connecticut Legislation, Ohio Advocacy, Apple and pricing, ebook sales

The latest news, courtesy of twitter (#ebooks and #libraries) and and other sources…

• Connecticut House of Representatives Unanimously Passes Bill to Study Library Access to Ebooks, Legislation Now Moves to State Senate  (thanks to InfoDOCKET for picking up this story) – the legislation has been modified from the original proposal that “the general statutes be amended to require publishers of electronic books to offer such books for sale to public and academic libraries at the same rates as offered to the general public”, instead “requiring the commissioner of consumer protection to report to the General Assembly on the issue by Feb 1″.
• Video Presentation by Two Public Library Leaders: “Ebooks: The Content Divide” (again,  thanks to InfoDOCKET for picking up this story) – the video also includes details of a briefing of politicians and a call to united action on the part of libraries.

“Patrick Losinski, CEO of the Columbus Metropolitan Library and Kim Fender, Director of the Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library, recently briefed members of the Ohio Library Council with an overview of the current ebooks in libraries situation focusing on consumer access to titles.”

• Apple was “ringmaster” in conspiracy to fix e-book prices, US says – latest news from ArsTechnica on the following  lawsuit:

The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit last year against Apple and six e-book publishers: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Pearson, and Simon & Schuster. The trial is scheduled to begin June 3 in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Apple has denied being part of any conspiracy,…

• E-books now make up 1/5 of U.S. Book Sales – as reported in Mashable, statistics from the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), for 2012 report that:

Approximately one in five books sold were e-books, which collectively accounted for $3 billion, or also about a fifth, of all trade publishing revenue, up 44.2% from 2011

“Tor Books says cutting DRM out of its e-books hasn’t hurt business”

ars technica reports that Tor Books, a leading publisher of Science Fiction ebooks, says that after selling DRM free books for a year there has been no discernible impact on its business -

This week, Julie Crisp, editorial director at Tor UK, wrote that the publisher has seen “no discernible increase in piracy on any of our titles, despite them being DRM-free for nearly a year.”

Tor’s 2012 decision was largely applauded by its customers, who enjoyed being able to share e-book files among various devices.

ebook news roundup from the Twittersphere

A twitter search on #ebooks and #libraries has brought up a number of new and interesting posts relating to ebook advocacy:

• Presentations from the IFLA MLAS (Management of Library Associations Committee) and CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals) Seminar E-books in libraries: A global question of survival? are now available online.   Thanks to infoDOCKET for the heads up.

• A report from the Library Journal OverDrive and Sourcebooks to Launch Ambitious Ebook Data Experiment

OverDrive and Sourcebooks are preparing to launch an innovative and ambitious pilot program whose goal is to clearly demonstrate the impact library ebook lending has on book sales and author recognition.

• A paper by two academic librarians Navigating the e-book maze, which “addresses some of the challenges of library e-book lending and compares major vendor options” has been published in The Charleston Advisor. Thanks again to infoDOCKET for the heads up.

• An article from Minuteman News Center Libraries, publishers at odds over e-books which as well as an overview of the issues libraries face with ebooks, includes discussion of the proposed Connecticut Bill HB 5164 An Act Concerning “E-Books” And Libraries that we featured in our earlier post An Act [bill] concerning “e-books” and libraries

Briefing paper from the Urban Libraries Council – Libraries, Publishers and Public Access to E-Books

On the third of May (2013) North American library advocacy group the Urban Libraries Council held a 30  minute ebooks issues briefing webinar.

The podcast of the webinar, the full Briefing Paper - Libraries, Publishers and Public Access to E-Books and the two page summary  Libraries, Publishers and Public Access to E-Books - Communities Need Access to E-Books are available from the e-books page on their website.

The ebooks briefing paper gives an overview of the current situation for ebooks in libraries and delivers 5 key messages:

1. Equal access to materials – including e-books – is fundamental to public libraries’ mission and critical to ensuring that all citizens have access to the information they need
2. Publishers’ policies are preventing the public from accessing e-books
3. Borrowing e-books from libraries is increasingly popular
4. Some book publishers are denying libraries access to e-books, while others significantly overprice titles
5. Pilot programs are encouraging, but need to be more widely implemented

“Challenges Borrowing an e-Book from the Public Library”

Thanks again to infoDOCKET for drawing our attention via Challenges Borrowing an e-Book from the Public Library to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation radio programme Spark‘s 24 minute segment E-Libary Letdown. The full panel discussion E-book Lending in Libraries is available on Spark‘s website, both podcasts are also available  from iTunes.

Back in February, Peter wrote about how he kept fellow Prince Edward Islanders from borrowing an electronic edition of Learn Norwegian – Level 1: Introduction to Norwegian from the public library, in part because the Mac version of Overdrive’s software didn’t allow him to return it. “This is crazy, and we must demand better, more rational systems from our library, if only because we’re making up systems and processes here that will be with us for generations.”

Intrigued by Peter’s experience, Spark assembled a panel to discuss e-books, public libraries, and artificial scarcity.

E-Book Lending in Libraries