If there’s one word to describe the transforming nature of the publishing industry, it’s e-books.
For the first time in U.S. history, e-book sales have surpassed hardcover sales. Soon they will surpass paperback books. Yet for all the hype, public libraries seem to be lagging behind the trend … at least in the eyes of its patrons.
Check out this infographic I made showing current trends:
[Click for Larger]
Thoughts?
NET Bible says
Some of the restrictions on book lending may be one reason some people don’t look to public libraries as much as we might expect. (I admit, I fall into that category of not knowing whether my public library lends e-books or not!) On a similar note, we’ve had a lot of success putting the NET Bible into an e-book at making it free to download through our site to get it into people’s hands. Supporting multiple formats and keeping the files friendly for all devices are some of the other issues that might be holding back the popularity of lending. As formatting becomes more standardized or one e-reader floats to the top maybe it will become more widely used?
Chris Ruddell says
Net Bible: I think you’re right that this is partially an issue of technology infancy. However, the format availability doesn’t seem to be what’s holding people back. My library (which isn’t all that large compared to the mega-cities in America) offers ebooks in Kindle and Epub formats, and occasionally in Adobe Digital Editions. It does this through Overdrive, of course. I think instead Amazon has shifted consumer mindsets away from public libraries and toward “If I want it I’ll just buy it”. If libraries did a bit more marketing, this might change. But of course marketing at any non-profit is always an issue.
NET Bible says
Chris: Thanks for your reply. You made me think about this in another context. Isn’t it strange that the “If I want it, I’ll just buy it.” has been a difficult idea to foster in the movie and music industries, but you have places providing digital books (and physical books!) for free (and legally) and they’re not being embraced as much as we might expect. There’s probably a sad cultural commentary wrapped up in there somewhere!
Chris Ruddell says
Indeed! In fact, it would be interesting to see statistics on the number of people that look for pirated copies of ebooks first, and upon failing to find them buy them on Amazon without ever visiting the library (virtually or in person)! Not sure how you would gather such statistics accurately, but I bet it would be telling.