Libraries Struggle to Stock Virtual Shelves (Washington Post article)

[Ann in Arlington]

In today's Washington Post.  Found it interesting.  Probably not really 'news' to folks here, of course.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/as-demand-for-e-books-soars-libraries-struggle-to-stock-their-virtual-shelves/2012/01/13/gIQAkIOXzP_story.html?hpid=z3

[jbcohen]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/as-demand-for-e-books-soars-libraries-struggle-to-stock-their-virtual-shelves/2012/01/13/gIQAkIOXzP_story.html?hpid=z3
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/tablet-wars-intensify/2011/05/02/AFPKCmzF_gallery.html#photo=1
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-libraries-struggle-to-meet-the-demand-for-e-books/2012/01/14/gIQAkuLVzP_graphic.html

[laurie_lu]

Prior to my public library providing a Kindle version of an ebook, I could easily check out an ebook in another format like EPub.  Once and a while I may have to wait in line.  At the most, I'd be the 2nd or 3rd person waiting for a book.  But since my library is now offering the Kindle format, there are over a hundred people waiting in line for a popular book.   If the book is less popular, there are just under 50 people waiting for it.  My library has not increased the number of copies since adding the Kindle format.  It's not worth even browsing for a book since I don't want to be 132 in line waiting for it.

[mooshie78]

My library always had long waits, even before the Kindle edition.  I used the Overdrive app on iPad to read ePub library books prior to that.

I had already given up on it even before the Kindle edition as the long waits just weren't worth it.  I only read one book at a time, and it just doesn't work to randomly have library books come off of hold when I'm in the middle of something else and only have 4 days to pick up the library ebook (and only 14 to read it) from my library.

So I've gone back to just buying all my e-books and just skipping those I think are priced too high.  I occasionally check the library site if I'm interested in something a tad obscure to see if they happen to have the e-book available to checkout, but I've yet to find anything they had that I was interested in with fewer than 20 people waiting.

[CNDudley]

The wait isn't too long at my library (King County Library System in western WA), and if romance/erotica is your thing, you're in luck because they seem to have gabillion of those. Most books I put on hold I get within two weeks!

[mooshie78]

Yeah, my library (Atlanta) does have a ton of romance/erotica as well!

But super long waits for anything remotely mainstream.

[kindlegrl81]

My library had long wait times on popular books, even before they started investing in ebooks.  I remember when I was reading the Percy Jackson series it took 3 months for me to get my hands on the 5th book.  The Twilight series was a minimum wait of 2 months (one of them took 6 months). 

I don't think very many people around here have figured out they can check out library books on their ereader because the longest I have waited for an ebook was 3 weeks.  Of course when I bought my Kindle 2 years ago, no one even knew what it was so it probably wont take much longer for the wait times to increase now that ereaders are more well known.

[cheriereich]

I noticed my library has a good selection of YA, but there are waits. Most aren't too bad. I'm sure this is just the beginning, though. Thanks for sharing the article.

[mooshie78]

With my library waits on paper books are long for recent popular books.  But older mainstream books are often available or just have 2 or 3 people waiting.  Where as even older mainstream e-books have waits 20+ deep.

Just a consequence of living in a major city.  Lots of people so you're going to have long waits on things like library books.

[TraceyC/FL]

My counties selection is dismal compared to the one north of me I have access too. That one just changed to only allowing people with actual cards to borrow - it's helped some on waits and as there is a branch around the corner from my kids Peds office - I have a card.

I have had a couple of massive waits, for kicks I put The Help in my queue to see how long it took. I think I'm down to number 35 (from 90 something, but they have 10 copies too).

I've been able to read older stuff and some new series - which has GREATLY increased my buying when other bargains come along. Because my budget is tight in the entertainment area, if I can only spend $5/mo on books I need an option for more for the rest of the month, and don't balk as much if something is more than 99 cents.

But the waits did jump when they added the kindle lending...

[Jan Strnad]

I've been on the epub list for The Girl Who Played with Fire for months (L.A. Public Library). I've joined the Kindle list now, also.

As long as they limit the number of copies available, I don't see the libraries being a problem for publishers. We're too much of an "instant gratification" society.

[Meka]

Initially I was excited about borrowing Kindle books from the library but lost interest when I saw how long the wait list were and having books randomly coming of hold would not work for me since I only read one book at a time. I decided it was more convenient for me to just purchase the book when I was ready to read it. For me one of the benefits of having a Kindle is instant reading gratification and I just didn't get that with borrowing Kindle books from the library. YMMV  

[Hadou]

That was a good article.  Waiting times can be killer, especially with some popular books.  But, there's always the option of just buying the book if you can't wait THAT long.

[Ephany]

I recently was waaaay down on the Kindle list at my library for a book, so on a whim I checked and they had two copies of the physical book in stock. I drove across town, found the book and when I got home there were weird green spots and cigarette burns all throughout the pages. I guess I'm weird that I'd rather wait for the Kindle version and not have to deal with other people's cooties. I have enough to read that I consider any books I check out to be a bonus surprise when I get the email that one is ready for download. If I find out that I really can't wait, I guess I'll end up buying it instead but so for that hasn't happened. I understand that libraries are between a rock and a hard place and I really appreciate the sheer convenience of being able to check out and return books without leaving my couch.

[Sarah1981]

I don't mind longer waiting times for ebooks. My entertainment budget goes a LOT farther courtesy of free library lending and, besides, I have three weeks to read any book I check out. (Check your settings at your library's Overdrive site; you might be able to increase from 14 to 21 days like I did at both the Free Library of Philadelphia and a city library here in Texas.)

[JBennett]

It's great to see such a demand for Kindle books, but the most surprising part of this article was the mention that the publisher of Steve Job's biography (Simon & Schuster) wouldn't make it available to libraries. Considering that the library in question had purchased almost fifty copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I wonder if S&S is losing a lot of potential money, or if they believe enough people will go out and purchase the book if it isn't available at the library. It'd be interesting to try and test that theory.

[RickRS]

And then there's those of us that had public libraries without any ebooks.

New to the Kindle, and hearing all this talk of ebooks on this forum, I ask my librarian if our county libraries had any ebook loans.  And the answer is no. 

She tells me there's an upcoming meeting to discuss ebooks, but she doesn't expect the county will fund any expansion of library services for ebooks.

[Betsy the Quilter]

I read that article.  What I found interesting was the bull put forward by the publishers.....and that the author of the article bought it hook, line and sinker.

And that the local library (it was in a pic in the print version, don't know if that is online) had a class on downloading library books.  That was pretty cool....

Betsy

[CrystalStarr]

My local small town library had a class on the ebooks too. I wanted to go just for curiosity if nothing else but it didn't work with my schedule. I hope it was helpful.

[mooshie78]

It's great to see such a demand for Kindle books, but the most surprising part of this article was the mention that the publisher of Steve Job's biography (Simon & Schuster) wouldn't make it available to libraries. Considering that the library in question had purchased almost fifty copies of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo I wonder if S&S is losing a lot of potential money, or if they believe enough people will go out and purchase the book if it isn't available at the library. It'd be interesting to try and test that theory.

Seems like the smart thing for publishers to do, if they don't want to sell e-books to libraries right away, is to do it after sales have slowed down.

Like movies that are out in the theater for a few months, then hit video.  And some studios have started making Netflix and Redbox wait 28 days after the DVD/Bluray is out for sale before selling them rental copies.  That way the studios get some extra sales by forcing people who want to see a movie right away to buy, and still make the movie available to rent after a while.

Maybe publishers could try that.  No library e-books while only the hardcover is out in print, but put them out once the paper back is out (or a month or two after the paper back is out.  That way they can try to generate more sales, while still making it available in the library as an e-book eventually for people who are never going to buy that book anyway.

I can appreciate the need for publishers and authors to make money, so I think there can be some happy medium between that and making books available to libraries so those with limited budgets can also read them.

That's another reason I don't make much use of the library.  I have an ok entertainment budget, so I generally prefer to buy and reward the author for their work.  Only time I'm tempted to use the library is when the publisher or author is greedy and the e-book is over priced relative to other books in the same genre from the same or similar publisher etc.

[jbcohen]

I'm with betsy on this issue for a different reason then the publishers arguments being baloney.  There is an old saying in the computer security community that no matter what we, in the security community do, there will always be ways around our safeguards.  It seems that publishers have not understood that basic truth.  Also where there are dollars to be made in theft there will always be someone willing to steel a particular item.  What the computer security industry has started looking into is reducing the incentive to steel information, and publishers have not understood this basic concept the higher they price their products the more tempting a target they will be and the more thieves there will be to steel their product.  Thus the artificially high book prices are making them tempting targets, what they need to do is to lower the cost of the books which will in turn lower the appeal to thieves which will actually net the publishers more dollars in the long run.  However, they seem to be intent on raising the prices of books.  A few years ago the average price of a New York Times Bestseller was approximately $8 (and this was probably four years ago) and now the average price is probably $15way too high.  This is why  I have a hard limit, won't spend over $8 don't care how good or bad the books are won't pay that.  Amazon is simply willing to sell me too many high quality books at or below the $8 price point for me to be willing to go any higher, its a simple equation of supply and demand.  The supply is there so I am not willing to go any higher.

I read that article.  What I found interesting was the bull put forward by the publishers.....and that the author of the article bought it hook, line and sinker.

And that the local library (it was in a pic in the print version, don't know if that is online) had a class on downloading library books.  That was pretty cool....

Betsy

[tamaraheiner]

I noticed this yesterday as I tried to download books from my local library system. Almost everything was "place a hold" rather than "download." It made me wonder how many copies they have available to download, if there is really that big of a demand.

[mom133d (aka Liz)]

I noticed this yesterday as I tried to download books from my local library system. Almost everything was "place a hold" rather than "download." It made me wonder how many copies they have available to download, if there is really that big of a demand.

The title's page should show how many are on the waiting list and under that number of library copies. I just pulled up Atonement since it was on the main page. 7 patrons waiting for 1 copy of the book. A quick glance at my local library's selection shows only 1 of most titles. The Fairfax County Library appears to have multiple copies of most books.

[QuantumIguana]

I haven't tried library books on my Kindle. Every book that I had any interest in either had a long waiting list or it said there were 0 copies available. Why even have it come up on the list if there aren't any copies available? The Overdrive interface is more clumsy than searching for paper books.

[Ann in Arlington]

I haven't tried library books on my Kindle. Every book that I had any interest in either had a long waiting list or it said there were 0 copies available. Why even have it come up on the list if there aren't any copies available? The Overdrive interface is more clumsy than searching for paper books.

Because you can get on the waitlist for it.