Jocelyn Phillips – E-books: if you provide the link, will they read them?

posted by Carol Cooke @ 2:49 PM

Jocelyn’s presentation was a wide ranging discussion of the e-book in libraries. She included a history of the e-book and it’s reception in libraries. She documented the change in reception of the e-book from the early 2000’s to present. She also talked about the technology for the original e-books (remember the dedicated readers?) and how this has changed so that today what is important is portability, hyperlinking, multimedia, remote access and being able to accommodate multiple users.

Those surviving in the e-book industry from its inception are large publishers, those with specialty collections and those with very targeted markets. Also popping up are self-publication services and free e-books. These days most access to e-books is in HTML format, PDF format or through NetLibrary.

Libraries discovering e-books? Free e-books are out there but difficult to discover. Vendors are attempting to include them in publishing lists of e-books but are not always successful. She discussed in detail the University of Guelph experience with NetLibrary and the publisher International Development Centre.

How do patrons discover e-books? Jocelyn outlined a variety of ways in which patrons discover a library “has” an e-book:

- placement in home page
- inclusion in subject guides
- inclusion in opac
- news announcements
- search engines
- classes
- lists of e-books not helpful

Libraries are challenged to provide access to e-books in a simple, clear way. Jocelyn discussed ways academice libraries are providing access to e-books (University of Guelph and University of Manitoba). She also discussed a disconnect between electronic and physical access to materials for students. In other words there is some confusion by patrons on how to access e-books.

E-book readers these are more popular for public libraries. Technology is still expensive but has improved in functionality. She reviewed a number of different e-book readers and their features.

Jocelyn touched on the World Public Library and Project Gutenberg which provide cheap subscription access or free access to e-books.

Standards have been created for e-book publishing (“International Digital Publishing forum (IDPF)”) and a number of vendors and publishers have signed on with the standard. Eventually this will have an impact on libraries. E-book readers will eventually be able to share material regardless of the different platforms. This will eventually mean lower costs for publishers and libraries.

Jocelyn helped me to understand the state of the e-book industry. I think that for me I'd like to take a closer look at purchasing e-books for my library but I still have a lot of questions.