David Lee King » ebooks

Amazon, Overdrive, Ebooks … and YOU.

David Lee King — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 01:29:46 +0000

You all read Sarah’s blog, right? (if you’re not, you should be). For those of you that don’t – check out her video rant about Amazon, Overdrive, Kindles, and ebooks (embedded above). There’s a bit of “language” in it … so you have been warned if that bothers you.

Great video, great content. And here’s the deal – Overdrive has basically allowed Amazon to sell their books on YOUR PATRON’S KINDLE. Via the Overdrive Kindle ebooks deal. And you and your library’s tax dollars are … paying for that privilege.

Did Overdrive tell us about that? Nope. Is that cool? Nope. Watch Sarah’s video for the details. And this is besides all the user data/privacy issues that I haven’t seen addressed yet (also discussed in Sarah’s video).

I’m not pointing the finger at Amazon – it’s not their fault. I’d guess they have been planning that functionality for months. Overdrive surely knew about this (I’m guessing here, but we’re talking about normal business practice too). Why didn’t they mention that?

What can you do about this?

For starters - read your contracts/licenses, etc. You don’t have to automatically agree to everything written there – you can actually change things. Or you can try, anyway.
More importantly - if you don’t like what Overdrive “allowed” Amazon to slip in (ie., direct selling and marketing to YOUR PATRONS without your permission) – let them know!
Or … simply don’t buy it.

Overdrive – no more secrets, please! Or if you DID share that and we somehow missed it – could you kindly point out where? Thanks!

Internet Librarian 2011, Day 2: Ebook Panel

David Lee King — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 18:15:16 +0000

Panelists: Bobbi Newman, Sarah Houghton, Amy Affelt, Faith Ward

Bobbi:

12% of US population own ebook readers. So it’s a very important issue, but one for a (right now) small population.

Barnes & Noble told people to get a Nook, then go to the library. In reality, they also needed a PC that connected to the web and could run Adobe Digital Editions. Not everyone who bought a Nook had access to that.

Kindle/Overdrive thing works easy. That puts us in a weird place – because the Kindle works better with Overdrive.

But it’s a bad deal, because Amazon has a lot of great data … Amazon now knows how many of our users read library books, what books, etc – guess how much of that we got? None of it. That’s a problem.

Sarah:

We are so greedy, we’ll take whatever the publisher gives us.

It’s important to provide this content for our users … but we need to look at the fine print.

Call out to Kansas librarians for standing up to Overdrive. Woo too!

Overdrive’s terms of service – they give us a license to access content, instead of owning it.

We need to read the license and not just sign them blindly.

More on Amazon getting stats and info on our patrons – this might violate intellectual freedom, and our official library policies.

Amy:

With her job, she usually never needs to buy a whole book – she needs a table, a chapter, etc. This is really hard in ebook formats.

She needs to buy the Kindle book, but put it on a colleague’s Kindle – she can’t do that. She wants to pay a license to read, the right to read across all platforms

Faith Ward:

looked at how children read differently on ebooks. Found that more students made mistakes when reading ebooks

But they were more willing to read on a tablet than a print book

Discovered that she needs to work with parents to get kids to read more in this environment

She won’t teach a book that’s not in an ebook format.

She did a “bring in your own device” thing … found it was hard with so many different formats, but wouldn’t go back – they have embraced the new technology.

Q & A:

HP person – they can relate. She has to pass something along, but can’t. So she makes a copy or a screenshot or prints them out, then scans them, and turn them into PDF files so she can pass them along (my friend Edward does the same thing).

We pay more for digital editions than the customer does, even though in print we can buy in bulk and get 40% off.

Interesting – the teacher – purposefully choosing content that is available in ebook format. That means she is not choosing good content that isn’t yet available electronically. It’s a conscious decision for her.

Here is no unified voice that speaks for libraries on this topic? Bobbi says no… (I’ll interject that that’s what Library Renewal is working towards).

Lending ereader devices: Buffy Hamilton’s school library did this, but ran into trouble with Kindles so switched readers.

Sarah – difference between content and container – we have to subscribe to both. Bobbi – if you are loaning out a certain device, you are in essence saying that’s the best format. Is that what you want to say? (not sure I agree with that – need to think more about it)

One woman stood up and said “Jeff Bezos has never lied.” Just wanted to say … really? You can prove this? I seriously doubt it … just saying.

Bobbi gave a great plug for Library Renewal. Yay!

My book is now an Ebook!

David Lee King — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:21:04 +0000

The fine folks at Information Today/Plexus Publishing just emailed and told me … my book is now an ebook! Sweet!

So – my book, Designing the Digital Experience: How to Use EXPERIENCE DESIGN Tools & Techniques to Build Websites Customers Love, is now in ebook format at these fine publishers:

Amazon Kindle version
Barnes & Noble Nook version
Ebooks.com, which covers iphone, ipad, Kobo, Sony Rader, PC, and Mac

If you haven’t yet purchased it (or if you have the burning desire to have my book in ebook format and didn’t download a rogue copy), please go buy it!

And one more slightly vague, mysterious plug for my upcoming book – it’s in editing mode at the moment. I have some touch-up work to do on it before sending it back. There are a few more steps after that, too – publishing a book is definitely a multi-step process.

The new book (tentatively called Face2Face) focuses on the nuts and bolts of using emerging web tools to connect with customers. There are tons of books on emerging web trends, but honestly not too many that include practical “how to” tips for actually using those tools to connect with customers, patrons … and people. So I thought I’d write about that.

Look for it next year!

Library Renewal: Zine and Song Debut

David Lee King — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:00:21 +0000

From the Library Renewal blog – The debut of our first video here at Library Renewal features our first brochure/zine and also features the debut of the first song made for Library Renewal. PS-We fixed the typo! Thanks for catching it!

You can get a copy of the zine as a thank you gift for your donation to Library Renewal by going here: http://libraryrenewal.org/donate

You can also see some higher quality images of pages from the brochure here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryrenewal/sets/72157626867255283/

The song is performed by Portland band, Lackethereof and we are grateful for their support here. Thanks, Danny!

Me again – make sure to find out more about Library Renewal by visiting our website (or by following us on Facebook or Twitter), signing up for the newsletter, etc. We are gearing up to do some pretty cool things, so stay tuned for that!

Ebook Vendors at #ALA11

David Lee King — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:00:19 +0000

I took some time to visit the vendor booths at ALA11 (the annual conference of the American Library Association – over 20,000 librarians descended on New Orleans this year!), and made sure to visit most of the ebook vendors out there – and let me tell you, they are a growing bunch! Here are my observations on the companies and the products I saw.

3M:

3M? Why is a company that makes sticky notes and self-check machines getting into the ebook business? Weird, right? It might be weird, but they also have an interesting-looking product. What are they doing?

First off, they are making their own 3M-branded ebook reader. It’s pretty basic, but it works – e-ink and all.
They also have a variety of apps for mobile devices and computers.
3M is calling their new service the Cloud Library System because ebooks are stored in two places – on the device and on cloud storage systems. This is handy – you can start reading at your PC, then get on the bus and continue reading via your iPhone, for example – you just have to log into your account, which remembers what page you’re on across hardware devices.
What’s it not work on? The Kindle (though they’re in talks with Amazon to change this). It does work on Nooks and iPads, though.
3M also has some pretty cool touch interface kiosks for ebook discovery.
Interestingly enough, they’re using one of my blog posts in their presentations! Cool.
Find out more…

Blio:

Baker & Taylor is a pretty familiar company to librarians – they’re a book distributor, and many libraries work with them. They have partnered with Blio, a new ebook service. Here’s what I know:

Blio is a creation of Ray Kurzweil (yes, THAT Ray Kurzweil) and the National Federation of the Blind, of all things. Baker & Taylor partnered with them to provide content.
Blio will read out loud to you (I assume by a computer-generated voice) and lets you take notes, highlight text, etc.
Blio’s big selling point is that they are full-color and provide the same graphically-rich experience you’d have reading a print book with pictures. But when I played with their iPad app at their booth, guess what? The two children’s books I looked at were text-only. Picture Curious George as a text-only book. Not nearly as much fun. I tried to ask their booth people about it, but they were all busy with other people at the time, so I moved on.
I also tried to attend their quick sit-down presentation at the booth – but the exhibit hall was noisy, and the Baker & Taylor people didn’t turn up the speaker’s microphone. I had trouble hearing them, and eventually left the presentation to poke around on my own. Other attendees had the same problem, so I know it wasn’t just me. Guys – it’s a volume knob. Turn it up next time please!
Here’s an article on Blio and here’s their website.

Freading:

Freading is the weirdly-named ebook product from Library Ideas, LLC (Freegal is another product of theirs).

OK. Can I just say this – they REALLY need to get their web act together. Right now, Library Ideas, LLC has a one-page website that stretches horizontally – sorta odd, if you ask me. They only useful info? An email address. No links, nothing. They could at least install WordPress and put some information out about who they are and what they do – it’s not that hard. Just sayin. [update - Just spoke with Jim Peterson at Library Ideas, and he told me they plan to have a new, marketing-oriented website up in 2-3 weeks. Much needed, so good for them]
Freading is an interesting product that’s very different from other models, just like Freegal. They offer patron-driven purchasing of ebooks – a patron picks a book, then the library is charged (the library can set a fee cap).
Freading uses a “token” metaphor for patron checkout. The patron gets five tokens a week to “spend” on ebooks. Popular books might “cost” more than one token, and less popular books might be just one token each. That’s all the patron gets to use for that week. I’m not convinced patrons will pick up on the “token” model very fast – we don’t really use tokens for anything else, so not sure how that model will connect with patrons … [update - the library determines the number of tokens their patrons get for the week]
Books are checked out for two weeks, then can be renewed once. Who decided two weeks? Not sure.
They’re in talks with larger publishers, but right now have some smaller publishers on board.
Glad to see a newer company trying to be innovative in a market that’s growing fast!

Overdrive WIN:

Overdrive has overhauled their interface, and their service … and named it Overdrive WIN. Here are some of the changes they’ve made:

They have streamlined the Overdrive product – I didn’t’ really play with it, but it’s supposed to be MUCH easier to use
They’re offering support for Kindles starting later this year
You’ll have immediate access to the first 10% of many ebooks – even if someone else has it checked out. That’s cool.
They’ll have patron-driven acquisitions, and a Want it Now feature that goes to online booksellers like Amazon. Just add a library Amazon Affiliates account, and you’ll make a little money every time a patron buys a book for themselves using that link.
There are some ebooks with simultaneous access, so no waiting in a virtual line for these titles.
Overdrive is also working to get ebook titles and links into library catalogs, so there aren’t two different places patrons have to go for content, which is a much-needed feature.

I didn’t get to eBrary or Recorded Books. There were probably a few other ebook vendors I missed, too!

So – four very different models of library-friendly ebooks out there. Any one model better than another? I don’t really think so. It really depends on the most-needed features your patrons have been requesting, and which of the different pricing models work best for your institution. And remember – the ebook market is growing like gangbusters – next year, it will look very different from what we have now.

Give Away some Ebooks

David Lee King — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 16:00:02 +0000

A couple weeks ago, I saw a pretty cool idea at the Denver International Airport, and thought it could be adapted to libraries.

1st Bank had some large advertisements up in the airport, giving away free ebooks (see the pic in this post – this was one of two signs I saw). All you needed was a smartphone with a QR Code reader – aim and read the code, and you were directed to download a free ebook (there was also a button to open a new banking account).

Pretty ingenious, if you ask me. Just guessing here, but I’m pretty sure the only books I saw were “free” out-of-print classics. For most people – people who are stuck at the airport with nothing much to do – what a cool idea! Give em a book (even if it’s freely available online), and brand it as your business.

How can this work for a library?

Why not copy this idea? Use a QR Code, put up a sign at the mall or the grocery store, and offer a “free” ebook (maybe something legally free from Project Gutenberg). Send the user to a mobile webpage, branded as your library – with a link to the ebook, and some info about your other cool services.

In essence, it looks like the library is giving away a free ebook – that works with multiple ereaders! Even those pesky Amazon Kindles that don’t play well with libraries.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

David Lee King — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 14:25:06 +0000

This is from Sarah Houghton-Jan and Andy Woodworth – take a peek (I’m guessing this will be all over the librarian parts of the web very soon).

They have crafted an eBook User’s Bill of Rights, and it’s good. Honestly, the only thing I’m not sure about here (and I might talk more about it later) is the right of first sale thing – that’s a hold-over from actually owning a physical object … and in the digital content world … well, you don’t actually own anything physical.

Otherwise, Sarah and Andy did a great job. in my mind, this Bill of Rights works for librarians AND authors – the idea of sharing and distribution is inherent in this document.

Does it work for publishers? I think it does. And it’s certainly a good place to start the conversation. What do you think?

***********

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users.

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.

To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work

Questions that Need Answers

David Lee King — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 23:44:20 +0000

So, I’ve been reading the tweets, and talking to some people about the OverDrive/HarperCollins fiasco with ebooks – and it looks like there are quite a few questions that need to be answered. Here they are (please add the ones I’m missing):

HarperCollins: Why 26 checkouts/uses?
HarperCollins: Did you talk to libraries to come up worn that number? If so, which ones?
HarperCollins: Did you talk to any of your authors about this change? What did they say?
OverDrive: Why the secrecy in your letter? Why were you hiding HarperCollins’ name?
OverDrive: are there other publishers jumping at the bit to do this? If so, when will that hit?
OverDrive: Did you argue against this? Because you surely knew that libraries wouldn’t be fond of this idea.
OverDrive: My understanding is that this announcement went out as a PDF file to OverDrive partners. How come you didn’t publish this as a press release on your website? Again – shy the secrecy?

So – what other questions need answers here?

Let’s Play Rent-A-Book!

David Lee King — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:04:13 +0000

Imagine this, for a sec. What if a publisher … oh, heck – let’s just say HarperCollins … suddenly decided that yes, they were still going to let your library get books from them … but there was suddenly a catch. If too many library customers checked the book out, you’d need to pay more money! In essence, you’d need to actually pay for a single book … more than once.

“Well, David – that’s just silly talk” you might say.

Check this out – Overdrive sent out a Library Partner Update (link via the awesome Librarian by Day blog) to their “OverDrive Library Partners.” Here’s part of what it says:

“To provide you with the best options, we have been required to accept and accommodate new terms for eBook lending as established by certain publishers. Next week, OverDrive will communicate a licensing change from a publisher [update - it's HarperCollins, according to Library Journal] that, while still operating under the one-copy/one-user model, will include a checkout limit for each eBook licensed. Under this publisher’s requirement, for every new eBook licensed, the library (and the OverDrive platform) will make the eBook available to one customer at a time until the total number of permitted checkouts is reached [according to Library Journal, it's 26 checkouts]. This eBook lending condition will be required of all eBook vendors or distributors offering this publisher’s titles for library lending (not just OverDrive).”

Then, from Library Journal – HarperCollins said this in a statement: “HarperCollins is committed to the library channel. We believe this change balances the value libraries get from our titles with the need to protect our authors and ensure a presence in public libraries and the communities they serve for years to come.”

So … HarperCollins is giving us a mere 26 checkouts per ebook … to protect its authors from … um … readers. Nice. Translation = we want more money.

But then, it gets even stranger. OverDrive continues:

“In addition, our publishing partners have expressed concerns regarding the card issuance policies and qualification of patrons who have access to OverDrive supplied digital content. Addressing these concerns will require OverDrive and our library partners to cooperate to honor geographic and territorial rights for digital book lending, as well as to review and audit policies regarding an eBook borrower’s relationship to the library (i.e. customer lives, works, attends school in service area, etc.). I can assure you OverDrive is not interested in managing or having any say in your library policies and issues. Select publisher terms and conditions require us to work toward their comfort that the library eBook lending is in compliance with publisher requirements on these topics.”

OK… So … you want to look at them, but not do anything with them? I’m missing something here, I think.

HarperCollins – what changed? We already have your print books in our libraries. To date, they have checked out WAY MORE than your ebooks (I’m sure this will eventually change, but still). But you have never attempted to do this silly rental thing with those books. Or asked us about our card issuance policies (which, for most of us, are readily available online – apparently a new concept for HarperCollins – assuming this was also a lovely HarperCollins initiative).

I get that OverDrive and individual publishers need to look to new funding models, or will need to eventually. But this? Well – it just seems weird to me.

What do you guys think?

Update – Further reading:

The OverDrive Library Partners PDF (via Bobbie Newman)
Librarian by Day’s thoughts
The Library Journal article
Roy Tennant’s thoughts
TheAnalogDivide chimes in (with some other great links)
And a Romance Author’s thoughts (gee … doesn’t sound like she needs protection from libraries)
another good article, on the Dear Author blog
Cory Doctorow chimes in
The Librarian in Black’s response
The Publisher of Tolkien Has Taken a Business Lesson from Sauron
This Library E-Book Will Self-Destruct After 26 Check Outs

pic by Alex E. Proimos

Library Renewal is needed!

David Lee King — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 17:03:06 +0000

Have you heard about Library Renewal? It’s a new non-profit organization focused on making access to and distribution of electronic content much easier and accessible for libraries and library customers.

Sounds simple, huh?

I’m on the board of Library Renewal, and just posted my first blog post explaining why I’m a part of it – here’s that blog post!

Why am I involved in Library Renewal? Really, the question should be “how could I NOT be involved in Library Renewal?”

Because I think the biggest, most important battle in the library industry for this next decade isn’t social media, or what we do on our library websites – it’s how we access and distribute econtent to our patrons.

Our customers obviously want electronic content – the recent “after Christmas rush” of patrons wanting to download econtent actually spiked and slowed down the Overdrive ebook service! Yep – our patrons are ready for econtent and ebook readers.

But that’s only one place to go for content – what about all those easy-to-use consumer services out there like Netflix, or Amazon, or even Apple’s iTunes? Those are the places most people go to for econtent – they work great, they’re easy to use, and they’re relatively affordable.

… And they pretty much lock libraries out of the equation. That’s not good, and I want to help change that. And I think Library Renewal has the potential to be a major change agent in the whole econtent arena.

So here I am – should be a fun ride!

If you’re interested in Library Renewal, make sure to subscribe to the blog for updates, and join in the fledgling community on Facebook and Twitter. Much more to come!

David Lee King » ebooks

Amazon, Overdrive, Ebooks … and YOU.

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