Marketing and elevator speeches

Another useful link from one of the groups I follow on LinkedIn - On men, elevator speeches, and market segments.

"But who uses a library nowadays, anyway?" 

"I can get books somewhere else."

I hear those two phrases much more often than I'd like. The blog post linked above suggests having two or three ideas prepared for people who will ask you "what's the benefit of a library?" In particular, the post concentrates on men, but keeping some suggestions on hand is a great idea.

Usually I counter 'what's a library good for' by listing the features of my local library system:

1. You can get books from all 33 branches and, given a bit of time, they will be sent to the branch of your choosing, which makes it easier to pick them up. You can't do it last minute, since it could take a few days to cross the city. Still - 33 branches is a lot of books. Not being limited to one branch is amazing.
1. You can order books from home. You don't even have to go into a library if you don't want to. Sometimes this is where I throw in something like 'you don't even need to get out of your pajama pants', depending on who I'm talking to.
2. 'You can return your books at any branch' is great for selling this feature, too. 
2. The library doesn't just have books - they also have DVDs, CDs, audiobooks, ebooks, and video games. Usually this garners a look of disbelief - DVDs? Video games? WHY? To make them available to everyone, as long as they have a library card... which is free.
3. Databases! I love databases so much. And I always forget...
4. Book recommendations. Reader's advisory. I am hesitant to offer it out, because reader's advisory is difficult (in my opinion) and hard to do if you haven't read books in the genre the patron's looking for. I fear someone approaching a librarian looking for science fiction only to be told they 'don't know the genre' and 'can't be any help'. 

Every Night

True.

Paperbackups

From Geekosystem: Internet Archive To Store Paper Copy Of Every Published Book

Internet Archive, a non-profit organization assembled in the 1990’s to build an internet-based library of digital collections has seemingly flipped positions, announcing an ambitious plan to store paper copies of every book they are able to acquire. With more than 100 million published works out there, Internet Archive wants to save one copy of every book ever published in the world. However, the company realistically hopes to establish long-term storage for approximately one copy of up to 10 million print books.

I find this both hilarious and gratifying. They were apparently inspired when they discovered people destroyed books Internet Archive scanned. Also: bit rot! Flipped bits! Actual terms that can be quoted in papers!

Public Libraries Take on E-Books

From Peter Osnos at The Atlantic: Public Libraries Take On E-books. More of the same; I was hoping for some update on HarperCollins' stance, but no such luck. The article mentions HarperCollins being willing to work with librarians, mind you. Another good quote about circulation:

For example, the New York system now has 125 copies of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but in three years it may only need a handful, and the revenue impact of pay-per-use could turn out to be small. Moreover, "dog-eared printed books" as one senior librarian explained to me, have always been replaced, and e-books significantly reduce the time, trouble, and expense of returning books back onto shelves.

HarperCollins, Big Tent Librarianship, Annoyed Librarian and Agnostic, Maybe

Now that you're familiar with the term 'big tent librarianship', here is an article by Andy from Agnostic Maybe entitled HarperCollins and Big-Tent Librarianship in which he discusses an Annoyed Librarian post about Public Library Privilege. Compare and contrast!

Libraries vs. HarperCollins

HarperCollins is making big waves in the library world by limiting ebooks to 26 loans before requiring libraries to buy the ebook again.

Our prior e-book policy for libraries dates back almost 10 years to a time when the number of e-readers was too small to measure. It is projected that the installed base of e-reading devices domestically will reach nearly 40 million this year. We have serious concerns that our previous e-book policy, selling e-books to libraries in perpetuity, if left unchanged, would undermine the emerging e-book eco-system, hurt the growing e-book channel, place additional pressure on physical bookstores, and in the end lead to a decrease in book sales and royalties paid to authors.

Alright, it is an outdated policy. On the other hand, I'm still in the camp that format and file changes make ebooks less permanent than hardcopy books. (Then again, I haven't actually been at a circulation desk and seen how damaged books get, nor do I know how many loans they go through before they're written off.) Twenty-six times seems pretty low, however. Maybe if they upped the limit a considerable amount?

The article also points out that Macmillan and Simon&Schuster don't yet offer libraries ebook versions of their books at all.

HarperCollins announced it was doing this in late February; it's starting to come into affect now, so it's not exactly new. Maybe people thought they wouldn't go through with it.

Ebook Millionaire

Amanda Hocking, 26, is making millions from publishing ebooks through the Kindle store.

Hocking, a self-proclaimed unicorn enthusiast and Muppet activist, writes about vampires, zombies, and yes, romance. According to reports, just one year ago, the Minnesota-based writer was "impoverished," "living paycheck to paycheck," and the manuscripts she sent out were rejected by publishers all over New York. Like many authors, Hocking turned to self-publishing, creating a store on Amazon. She set the prices of her work relatively low — 99¢ to $2.99 — and for every $2.99 book she sells, she keeps 70%. Hocking tells USA Today: "To me, that was a price point that made sense for what I would be willing to spend on an e-book… I use iTunes a lot, and it's 99 cents and $1.29 a song."

That's so crazy! Naturally, because she's self-published, she's getting a lot of flak for it. The Jezebel writer makes an interesting point, one that reminds me of last month's post about loving 'bad' writing:

...It's strange that just because she's a popular writer, folks are expecting her to be an excellent writer. Is Britney Spears an excellent singer? Is Jersey Shore an excellent show? It doesn't matter. People like what they like...

Hocking is fairly thoughtful about the situation and reflects on it in her own blog with candor and insight.

For further reading, Jezebel also links to The Book Deal Blog's Book bloggers can help sell your book: Tips for authors.

The eBook is Not the Enemy

From a friend of my Database Searching instructor: The ebook is not the enemy, so who is? by Trudi Stafford.

Here’s the thing: public libraries are in a unique position to promote and support reading and publishers should want to be our friends, not try to cut us off at the legs. That approach just doesn’t make sense and it smacks too much of out-and-out greed. Remember Gaiman’s point: if anything, sharing leads to more buying, not less – publishers need to recognize the symbiotic relationship they’ve always shared with libraries, who act as promoters and advertisers. Libraries get us hooked on books, and eBooks are going to help libraries do that even more. Why then are publishers feeling the need to punish an ally like the public library, or the consumer for that matter?

The article is full of good points like this, and also has The Ebook User's Bill of Rights, which I had not yet seen before:

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights


Every eBook user should have the following rights:

the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks
I believe in the free market of information and ideas.

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.

These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand. To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.

Digital Magazines Take Too Long

I could pretend I didn't post yesterday because I was off doing romantic Valentine's Day things, but really, I wasn't. My Valentine's Day take totaled one Pokemon Valentine from a classmate ("You're fun!"). And some free chocolate from a certain teacher passed around in a really adorable bag. But anyway!

This article from the New York Times amused me: Nick Bilton decides to hold a bit of a race - which can he get faster, a digital copy of a magazine or the print version. The winner may surprise you, but I have to wonder about how crummy his internet connection is. (I guess that was a spoiler, but then, so is the title of this post.)

Neil Gaiman Interview Involving Copyright

Neil Gaiman on how his views on copyright and piracy changed.

"That's really all this is; it's people lending books."



I discovered Gaiman through a book a friend lent to me at a particularly cruddy time in my life; Good Omens, which he co-authored with a favourite author of mine at the time, Terry Pratchett. And after I read that, I decided I wanted to read more by him, and proceeded to be a big fan of Neil's for years and years after that, even breaking my 'no hardcovers' rule for him. I have borrowed Neil Gaiman's books, I have lent Neil Gaiman's books, but I have never pirated Neil Gaiman's books.

Another One About Books vs. E-Books

Another article about books vs. e-books.

More of the same, though some newish points:

• Losing a hardcover isn't as bad as losing an e-reader, cost-wise
  
• E-books don't have everything, like esoteric stuff and newly published stuff by young writers
  
• Most readers will probably use e-readers to augment, rather than replace, their libraries
  

Overall, the sky doesn't appear to be falling from this article's viewpoint.

Are Libraries Finished?

An article from BBC News, which I take a little more seriously than one from a country that isn't reporting massive libraries closures: Are libraries finished? Five arguments for and against.

The basics -

Only at the library:

1. Specialist research
   
2. Environment to learn
   
3. Expert staff
   
4. Free internet access
   
5. Engage in social democracy
   

Only online:

1. Searchability
   
2. Digital books
   
3. Comfort in numbers
   
4. Brings niches together
   
5. Self-publishing
   

Just read the full article anyway.

E-Readers in Ghana

Hey, it's my favourite bugaboo about the digital divide turned on its ear! Worldreader.org is sending e-readers to students in Ghana and it seems to be going well so far. They also have a project in Florida. One thing both projects have in common: kids are great hackers. There are some differences, too:

One of the differences is in motivation. If a teacher in Florida doesn't want to bother with the training or believes the technology is a distraction, it is probably because they already have access to the paper books the texts are from. In Ghana, that is not so. In Ghana, the e-reader program has made the difference not between one type of book or another but books or none.

Digital Lending 101

From the Dear Author blog, Digital Lending: How it works and who allows it. An exceptionally good guide of interest to anyone owning or considering owning an e-reader.

E-book Piracy

Jenn Webb has written an article called Book Piracy: Less DRM, More Data for the O'Reilly Radar. She interviewed Brian O'Leary on the subject.

Some highlights:

First, the method for counting downloads of pirated books is clunky at best. Second, you can't say that every download is equivalent to a lost sale. Some are, but there's at least some likelihood that the pirated titles either spurred sales or represented a download that never would have resulted in a sale anyway.

The other thing, too, is you've got to look at where the downloads occur. If it's a North American title and the downloads occurred in Romania, I'm not that worried about it if I'm a publisher. It actually, if anything, says to me I should be moving my English language rights and my translation rights faster.

It's not that piracy is not a problem, it's just that it's not demonstratively a problem until you know what's actually happening.

Some companies are focused on applying fairly strict DRM software to their digital books. I'm pretty adamant on DRM: It has no impact whatsoever on piracy. Any good pirate can strip DRM in a matter of seconds to minutes. A pirate can scan a print copy easily as well. DRM is really only useful for keeping people who otherwise might have shared a copy of a book from doing so.

Absolutely agreed. Any code can be broken.

I think piracy has become more acute with ebooks, not because ebooks are easily pirated but because ebooks are easily visible. So, for example, if I'm living in South Africa and I speak English, but I want to read Nora Roberts, and Nora Roberts is only published in North America, I might have to wait through a four-year cycle to get her latest book. That lead time made sense when it was about ink on paper. But if it's an ebook, as a reader, I want to read it today — I love Nora Roberts, and I'd pay for her latest book, but I can't get it here because there's no service that will sell me an ebook in South Africa. That's when piracy starts to occur. Readers say: "I would have paid for it, but they wouldn't give it to me. They frustrated my demand."

I think this frustrated demand is a big reason for piracy, either of music or movies or books. While new music is pretty available if you want to consent to using iTunes (and some don't), some older things are quite difficult to find. Movies, too; if I go to my local movie rental place, I can find new things alright, but anything older than maybe ten years is quite iffy.

A Traitor and His E-Reader

Well, he feels like a traitor, anyway. A little piece about an avid print book reader enjoying his e-reader by Ross Rogers in the Globe and Mail.

To give e-reader proponents some well-deserved points, it’s true that I am less likely to accidentally smear the pages of my electronic book with barbecue sauce. That’s because this shiny tablet costs more than $100. If anybody goes near my e-reader with greasy fingers, I am inclined to attack the offender physically. My paper books, on the other hand, are invariably stained with coffee and chocolate, and I could care less.

One of my classmates has a little e-reader and she's let me poke around with it. I have to admit it's tempting, especially given some Future Shop gift cards I received over the holidays...

Canadians Read A Lot

The Globe and Mail, When it comes to books, Canadians read a lot but also worry a lot. Who came up with that title?

When the first nationwide count of book buying and borrowing weighs in with its numbers Wednesday, Canadians may be surprised by how many books they brought home in just one week: It’s safe to predict the number will be in the millions. Sales figures already show that Canadians buy more than one million a week; urban library systems report weekly print circulation numbers in the tens or even hundreds of thousands.

So why are we so worried about the death of reading?

Students and Textbooks, Print vs. Digital

A short piece on studies showing students prefer print text books to e-books.

Still, some college students do prefer e-texts. About 12% of the students surveyed--mostly males, and often MBA-seeking or distance learners--said they liked the lower cost, convenience, and portability of e-texts. The majority of survey respondents (60%) said they place high value on core textbooks--whether printed or electronic--most of which continue to be purchased at the college bookstore (65%). One-fifth of students said they purchased textbooks from Amazon.com. And 11% of students said they preferred renting textbooks to buying them.

The idea of reading a textbook on a screen is not a pleasant one for me. I like bookmarking, too - the old fashioned kind, with scraps of paper.

Free Computers!

I've sat on this post for a long while, too. (I've been going through my article bookmarks from the top down to try to salvage things that aren't entirely outdated for blog posts.) This is generally what I think of when people talk about how digital will completely replace print and I get all uppity about not every household in North America, much less the entire world, having access to computers.

But what about computers that are donated? Sadly, sometimes they are used for metal salvage instead of all that educational stuff. Which is not to say computers shouldn't be donated, but rather illustrate that the world is not ready to go entirely digital yet.

Digital Pagination

One of the problems I have with ebooks is the lack of page numbers. (Kudos to PDFs there.) The notion of introducing pagination to digital documents intrigues me a little.