The first ever #libnews Digest

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to blog more so I thought I'd try a weekly digest of library stories in the press that have caught my attention. Here goes for the first edition!

Cuts

Sadly the bulk of the stories hitting the press are about library cuts. This piece in the Telegraph caught my eye, not because of library cuts specifically but because of Michael Gove's unfortunate reference to the Chinese cultural revolution. It seems bizzare as you wouldn't expect Michael Gove to aspire to Mau-like social policy. It got me wondering though - just exactly are we loosing and how will people look back on this period of, what seems to me, to amount to cultural barbarism.

In the local press there's a depressing number of articles on local library services every day. How are the decisions being made on which cuts to make? This article, disturbingly, makes the observation that libraries in more affluent areas seem to be doing better that those in poorer areas. I'd suggest this is counter-intuitive. Any socially-minded library service would surely fight hardest to keep libraries open in the areas where they're most needed wouldn't they? Would this not mean prioritising libraries in the poorest areas?

Public consultation seems to be very much in vogue at the moment for deciding what gets the chop. Surely asking the public is fair? I guess that depends on how the consultation is carried out. For example this unfortunately named article describes the "Somerset Library Closure Roadshow" where concerns are raised that four out of six consultation events are to be held in libraries that will stay open - in research terms this might somewhat "skew" the sample!

And what constitutes a "consultation". Barnet refuse to recognise a popular petition and will not allow it to be housed in their libraries. It seems councils are keen to consult but only through "official channels" (if I were cynically minded I'd also suggest only if the consultation gives them the answer they're looking for!).

Back in the West Country, there's nothing like a bit of notice for a public consultation - and this is nothing like a bit of notice! The ways these things are publicised to stakeholders is very important and a day's notice hardly cuts the mustard.

This article about community engagement with the 'Big Society' in The Guardian got me thinking of another problem with this type of consultation - basically that the areas that have the most social capital are likely to see the highest turn-outs, whereas the socially exculded won't necessarily be aware of consultations and may not have the social capital to have their voice heard. I'm afraid there is a real danger that libraries in middle class areas will survive while those in the areas where they're most needed will dissapear.

Perhaps an even more worrying approach is no consultation - or even recognition of what is happening. The formation of a friends of Peterborough libraries group seems like a lovely idea but if you read on, the purpose of the group is to "get involved with organising events such as author talks, raising funds, promoting the library and its events, and collecting and conveying local views on the library service and its future"... um, isn't that what librarians do. The word "cuts" is not mentioned in this article. A depressing angle to library news that I'm sure will rumble on and on...

Ebooks

In other news, a couple of stories on Ebooks caught my eye. The first was that Ebook loaning services seem to be gaining popularity in the public library sector. I wonder if there's a model here that could work in academic libraries for tailor made collections of downloadable ebooks - with the number of students that have smart phones, laptops or other mobile devices, the tech is certainly at critical mass...

I was quite amazed by this story about Amazon enabling loans between Kindle users. This has always seemed like a really proprietary platform (and right thinking people should avoid it!) but does this indicate that Amazon have recognised that people like to share books? Is there a role for libraries to loan Kindle books somewhere down the line?

Funny

I thought I'd finish on a funny. This fusion of sci-fi geekery and librarian pedantry made me chuckle.

Have a good weekend folks...

Ebooks, Publishers and 21st Century Enclosure

It's funny how seemingly unconnected stuff you read about sometimes converges. I've been reading about enclosure recently (OK mostly on Wikipedia and in the poetry of John Clare but that still counts right?). The word enclosure (in this context) refers to a period of English history where common rights to use land for the purpose of grazing or mowing hay were revoked by the landowners by fencing off, or "enclosing" the land. This was driven by the will of the landowners to use the land as pasture for sheep as there was an international market for English wool. However, sheep farming does not require as much labour as arable farming so effectively, by fencing off the land into pasture for greater profit, the landowners took the rights of the common people to earn a living from the land. This was serious stuff - it meant that whole areas where depopulated as people could no longer afford to live in the area. Initially the government and the church brought in measures to kerb this "depopulating enclosure" but the wealthy landowners were able to use their influence to change legislation and have their way. The motive for profit for a wealthy and influential minority was allowed to overcome the greater good for the majority of the population.

So what on earth has this got to do with ebooks? This week the Publishers Association announced (at a CILIP conference no less) that it will seek to restrict the downloading of ebooks in public libraries (see the comments of Ian Clark and Phil Bradley for a balanced opinion). If this intention is realised it will mean that users of ebooks will have to travel to the library to download a copy of an ebook - basically the PA would seek to end remote downloads. Ostensibly this is a reaction to an authority making ebooks available to people who are not local residents. Overdrive, one of the main companies that provide a system for lending ebooks have been quick to address this concern. The Overdrive system is a "one book-one user" model. Which means that only one user can be reading a copy of an ebook at one time. After their loan period is up the book expires and is no longer readable on the users ebook reader.

So, libraries are not "giving away" something which the publishers make their living from selling, they are merely lending it. This model works in the same spirit as libraries have always lent print books. So what is the PA's beef? Libraries and publishers have managed to coexist for aeons. Libraries lend print books and people still buy them from bookshops. So why would the publishers association object to a system that allows the same to happen for ebooks? I'd like to suggest that perhaps the publishers aren't really worried about going out of business because of libraries lending ebooks, they just want an even bigger slice of pie.

Let's return to the print book world for a second. Let's pretend booksellers were in charge. What do you think the booksellers would decide if they were given the choice of libraries existing or not existing? Would they be tempted to abolish print libraries so that they could sell a few more copies of books to individuals or would they protect the rights of the public to access that information?

There's not much I'm proud of the UK for, but I am actually blown away by the fact that I live in a country where the public have a right, set down in legislation, to borrow information. The Public Lending Right is a rare gem in that it protects the rights of the public to access information from the commercial interests of those who profit from selling it. It means that regardless of your socioeconomic status, you have the right to walk into a library and  access the information you need to be an informed and active member of society.

So what this is really about is the Publishers Association attempting to use it's commercial clout, and confusion about what ebooks are, the way they are borrowed, and what the Public Lending Right covers to prevent libraries from lending ebooks in the same way as print materials. As librarians, I believe that we need to speak up  on this issue (blog, tweet, comment, talk!) to ensure that the profit margins of booksellers is not allowed to affect the rights of the population to access ebooks.

 

The Times. Are They A Changing?

Change is good and I think that we are starting to see some change in the way that publishers are thinking about eBooks. I've been thinking alot about O'Reilly's adoption of Bookworm and promotion of the ePub format. O'Reilly have also started to make eBooks available in a wider range of formats with their eBook bundles. This has led me to think that *possibly* some of the barriers to libraries offering their users eBooks may soon come down.

Price...

I saw a recent blog post from @ijclark on eBook pricing. Ian found that, for individuals at least, there was no real price benefit to getting an eBook. For libraries, this point is even more salient as you often have to pay platform or hosting fees on top of the cover price. An interesting aside here, contrary to eBooks in general O'Reilly eBook bundles are significantly cheaper than the print versions (try clicking on any with a green E logo from this page to compare). It seems that O'Reilly have recognized the price barrier and opted to pass production savings on to eBook readers.

The Dreaded DRM and proprietary standards...

DRM only really works on closed standards and O'Reilly have correctly (just my opinion) identified that closed standards are preventing eBook uptake. Amazon are particularly bad at this - using a proprietary file format for the Kindle which makes it difficult to read books that you have bought for the Kindle on any other device (and vice versa).

My library patrons use a number of different operating systems, mobile devices and eBook readers. Buying eBooks that all of my library users can read (regardless of their chosen platform) is very important to me. At the moment I don't have this ability. However, there are signs that more publishers and eBook manufacturers are getting behind the open ePub standard.

As a librarian I want to decide which books I buy...

Until recently, most of the best computing publishers (O'Reilly, Addison-Wesley, Pearson etc.) have offered their eBooks exclusively through a distributer - namely Safari Books.

Safari works on a subscription basis. Getting all of this content for $45 per month may seem like a bargain but actually, how many computer books can you read a month? When you look at this on an institutional level (for example providing library users with access) the pricing becomes prohibitively high - especially when you know that your users don't need alot of the content that you're paying for.

Whilst some distributors (such as Netlibrary) will let you pick and choose which titles you buy they are hamstrung in that they can't sell books that are exclusive to other distributors. To build the collection you'd like to as a library, you'd need to have deals with a number of distributors. This would really break the bank as well as confusing your library users. In practice it's Hobson's choice between paying through the nose for content that you don't need and offering more selective but lower quality books. The solution, for me, is for publishers to offer their content directly to users in a common format. Cut out the distributors.

Light at the end of the tunnel?

All this brings me back to Bookworm. When I first saw Bookworm I got very exited as it is a free platform that allows individual users to build bespoke collections that are hosted on the Internet. It's actually not far off being a platform that libraries could use to provide access to collections that aren't hampered by subscription/ exclusivity deals or limited content that we get with existing platforms.

Ironically, the lack of DRM is what makes this a no-no at the moment. Obviously, hosting a load of eBooks on Bookworm and giving users access is not an option. Everytime a user downloaded an eBook they'd be creating a copy which would be a massive infringement of copyright. Cleveland Public Libraries have overcome this problem using OverDrive's platform to host their ePub books (they are the only library that I can find who are loaning ePub books). The way this works is that when a user downloads the file it becomes unavailable to other library users. After a time the user's copy of the file expires. At the same time the copy on the library system becomes available to the masses again. However, OverDrive are a distributor so, although the ePub file format is open, you'd soon come up against the exclusivity/ limited content problem.

Soooo, it's not quite there yet. However there is hope. With publisher's like O'Reilly recognising that overpricing, proprietary file formats & DRM, and the limitations of distributors are hampering eBook uptake by individuals, hopefully it won't be long before some of these issues are resolved for libraries?