Shelf Free is an independent group set up and led by librarians (but open to all) to raise awareness of the opportunities and issues around e-books in public libraries.
Library members often complain that their library is not offering the ebooks that are available on the market. This is because publishers, especially the big ones, have a variety of concerns about the impact of public lending on the market place and are therefore reluctant to license their books for libraries.
Here’s a graphic illustration of our problem. Below is a list of the top 50, most borrowed adult fiction books of 2012. Out of the top 50, only SEVEN were available for us to buy as e-books – and even then it depended on which supplier the library service was signed up to. With one supplier, only two titles were available.
This demonstrates the extent of the restrictions library services are working under, and library users just don’t understand why this should be so, so we end up spending a lot of time trying to explain.
We’re keen to develop our relationships with publishers and other stakeholders. E-lending is clearly crucial for public libraries, and there is a great deal we can bring to the book trade table. Through our network of libraries, we can offer a shop window to a bigger number of customers than any other organisation.
At the moment, the government is carrying out a review of e-lending which is expected to report soon. We are looking forward to its recommendations.
|
Top Library Loans as listed on Neilsen Bookdata January 2013 |
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| Position | Title/Hardback (H/B) Paperback (P/B) | Author | Publisher | Available to UK public libraries? |
|
1 |
Affair,The:Jack Reacher (H/B) | Child, Lee | Transworld Grp |
Yes |
|
2 |
Litigators,The (H/B) | Grisham, John | Hodder & Stoughton Grp |
No |
|
3 |
Drop,The (H/B) | Connelly, Michael | Orion Grp |
No |
|
4 |
Impossible Dead,The (H/B) | Rankin, Ian | Orion Grp |
No |
|
5 |
Kill Me If You Can (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
6 |
Help,The (H/B) | Stockett, Kathryn | Penguin Grp |
Yes |
|
7 |
Private Games (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
8 |
Soldier’s Wife,The (H/B) | Trollope, Joanna | Transworld Grp |
No |
|
9 |
11th Hour (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
10 |
Red Mist:Scarpetta Novels (H/B) | Cornwell, Patricia | Little, Brown Book Grp |
No |
|
11 |
Thread,The (H/B) | Hislop, Victoria | Headline Grp |
No |
|
12 |
Death Comes to Pemberley (H/B) | James, P. D. | Faber Grp |
No |
|
13 |
Silent Girl,The (H/B) | Gerritsen, Tess | Transworld Grp |
No |
|
14 |
Worth Dying For:Jack Reacher (H/B) | Child, Lee | Transworld Grp |
Yes |
|
15 |
Now You See Her (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
16 |
Kill Alex Cross (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
17 |
Don’t Blink (P/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
Yes |
|
18 |
Zero Day (H/B) | Baldacci, David | Pan Macmillan Grp |
No |
|
19 |
Fifty Shades of Grey (P/B) | James, E. L. | Random House Grp |
No |
|
20 |
Flash and Bones (H/B) | Reichs, Kathy | Random House Grp |
No |
|
21 |
Sixth Man,The (P/B) | Baldacci, David | Pan Macmillan Grp |
No |
|
22 |
61 Hours:Jack Reacher (H/B) | Child, Lee | Transworld Grp |
Yes |
|
23 |
Faithless,The (H/B) | Cole, Martina | Headline Grp |
No |
|
24 |
Three Letters (H/B) | Cox, Josephine | HarperCollins Grp |
No |
|
25 |
Worth Dying For:Jack Reacher (P/B) | Child, Lee | Transworld Grp |
Yes |
|
26 |
Private London (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
27 |
Tick Tock (P/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
28 |
Fifth Witness,The (P/B) | Connelly, Michael | Orion Grp |
No |
|
29 |
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The:Millennium Trilogy (P/B) | Larsson, Stieg | Quercus Grp |
No |
|
30 |
Good as Dead:Tom Thorne Novels (H/B) | Billingham, Mark | Little, Brown Book Grp |
No |
|
31 |
Sins of the Father,The (H/B) | Archer, Jeffrey | Pan Macmillan Grp |
No |
|
32 |
One Day (P/B) | Nicholls, David | Hodder & Stoughton Grp |
No |
|
33 |
10th Anniversary (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
34 |
Daughters-in-Law H/B) | Trollope, Joanna | Transworld Grp |
No |
|
35 |
Promise,The (H/B) | Pearse, Lesley | Penguin Grp |
No |
|
36 |
Before the Poison (H/B) | Robinson, Peter | Hodder & Stoughton Grp |
No |
|
37 |
Sister (P/B) | Lupton, Rosamund | Little, Brown Book Grp |
No |
|
38 |
Me Before You (P/B) | Moyes, Jojo | Penguin Grp |
No |
|
39 |
Stay Close H/B) | Coben, Harlan | Orion Grp |
No |
|
40 |
Midnight (P/B) | Cox, Josephine | HarperCollins Grp |
No |
|
41 |
Fifth Witness,The (H/B) | Connelly, Michael | Orion Grp |
No |
|
42 |
Private: No. 1 Suspect (H/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
No |
|
43 |
Before I Go to Sleep (P/B) | Watson, S. J. | Transworld Grp |
No |
|
44 |
Vault,The (H/B) | Rendell, Ruth | Random House Grp |
No |
|
45 |
Live Wire (P/B) | Coben, Harlan | Orion Grp |
No |
|
46 |
Haunting,The (H/B) | Titchmarsh, Alan | Hodder & Stoughton Grp |
No |
|
47 |
Fear Index,The (H/B) | Harris, Robert | Random House Grp |
No |
|
48 |
Accident,The (H/B) | Barclay, Linwood | Orion Grp |
No |
|
49 |
Believing the Lie (H/B) | George, Elizabeth | Hodder & Stoughton Grp |
No |
|
50 |
Postcard Killers (P/B) | Patterson, James | Random House Grp |
Yes |
I see this issue in the books available (or not) though the e-books for loan in my local library service. What I don’t understand is why librarians have rush to tie themselves in with overdrive when most of the books are not available anyway and those that are aren’t available on kindle the most popular e-reader? I’m not sure what the government could do to rein in the might of amazon and google, I doubt they would want to anyway. They are not going to want libraries giving away what they are trying to sell. The only co-existing model I can see working is if you get the books later, with some sort of time limit on how long you can keep them and can only lend it once from the library and this makes the service different from the premium service you would get if you opted to pay for Amazon prime. It still doesn’t sit right though. If they don’t want to play ball I’m not sure what if anything we can do. Perhaps if Shelf Free could suggest things library users could do to try and put pressure on those involved to get library users a good deal.
Surely a free flow of books is the aim of a library and this situation means no free flow and not even a trickle! How e-books get disseminated so needs to be reviewed but I am not sure if the Governments review of e-lending will look at it in enough detail to make suggestions for changes that will work. None of the current e-lending models ‘does what it says on the tin’ yet. I await the report but not with bated breath.
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Not to mention the fact that most of the books I want to read aren’t available to buy, let alone borrow, as e-books anyway!
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Consider it a blessing. It is wrong for libraries to waste money on e-lending infrastructure. Why? The full argument is here: http://scitechsociety.blogspot.com/2012/04/annealing-library.html
Converting from paper-based to electronic lending seems natural, but it is wrong. E-lending is the wrong future for libraries. For the full argument: http://scitechsociety.blogspot.com/2012/04/annealing-library.html
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