Like many librarians, I’m an avid reader. Reading can be an expensive habit, and as there is this lovely place called a library where I can get books for free, I am a heavy library user.
I’m also an e-book reader – I have the Kindle, Barnes & Noble, and Stanza e-reader apps on my iPod Touch. I enjoy the flexibility of being able to read with one hand (the other is usually commandeered by the cat); the privacy, since there’s no book cover proclaiming to the world that I’m reading a bodice ripper on my lunch break; the instant gratification, as my nearest big box book store is 10 miles away.
Library user…e-book reader. Seems reasonable to assume that library users that also like e-books might, I don’t know, want to check out e-books and read them on their Kindles, iPods, Nooks, etc.
Can someone explain to me why no one is doing this? I know some libraries are circulating the Kindle devices themselves – but that leaves libraries stuck with the model of having to loan physical objects.
We’re doing it at La Crosse as part of a statewide consortium that I’m on. Part of the problem was we built a collection a few years ago and no one was using it. So we moved money towards audio downloads instead. Now, in the past 3-6 months, we’re getting increased demand (but only a little more money) and we’re trying to get as many mp3 audiobooks as possible (hide from the DRM) and also rebuild the e-book collection. It’s just like any other new collection in a library, where you need to throw a fair amount of money at it for start up and unfortunately I think a lot of libraries just don’t have the extra funds.
The ownership model for e-books is different from that of physical books in that you don’t really own the e-books you pay for.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine
The licensing agreements for most dedicated readers either don’t allow for transfer of titles, or place strict limitations on doing so. It would require the agreement of companies like Amazon and B&N (who need the agreement of publishers) to make such lending possible.
Also, there’s no need to decentralize e-book data. In an e-book world, local libraries would have no reason to buy their own collections, since the normal economic constraints would give “One library to rule them all” an economy of scale that doesn’t quite work the same with physical books.
Overdrive offers ebooks that are compatible with the Nook and the Sony Reader (no Kindle support, yet). The Kent District Library is actually pretty good about advertising this fact.
Overdive, as Mr. Holm noted, does offer that for compatible devices, which may or may not work with your app. Unfortunately for me, my local public library doesn’t have Overdrive ebooks. NetLibrary can do the same, but you need an extra license for it, which I suspect may be costly. What motivation do publishers have to work out the kinks of DRM and library use when most readers appear to be willing to spend $10-15 on individual copies of ebooks?