Editorial: To Kindle or Not

News from Amazon on the ebook and audiobook fronts has delivered a one-two punch to the ability of libraries to lend these hot formats. Yet there is speculation that at least one of the announcements may make it easier to use dowloadable audiobooks on different players. While libraries are largely peripheral to the business of the Amazons of the world, those giants shouldn't underestimate the value of an agency that has deep connections to the minds (and hearts) of a sizable portion of the population. Libraries have helped popularize audiobooks and now the downloadable audiobook and have introduced many of their patrons to ebooks as well.

First, in November, Amazon released the Kindle, a reading device that some gadget gurus (including Chris Harris, who reviewed it for LJ netConnect, 1/08, p. 12ff.) consider to have the best chance yet to spur ebook readership. Harris disagrees with critics and argues that while the Kindle may appeal to the affluent geek, it's also perfectly simple for the nontechie to use. Then, in February, Amazon said it would purchase Audible, the largest seller to consumers of downloadable audio.

In the case of the Kindle, libraries appear to be able to lend the device itself, but its content is locked up in its shrink-wrapped Terms of Service, which prohibits distribution to a third party (see News, p. 18). That means that whatever ebooks the library buys for it can't be loaned. The Kindle is further limited by the proprietary nature of the software itself: ebooks purchased for a single Kindle can't be transferred or shared, a deterrent for consumers as well.

None of that has stopped at least one enterprising library (Sparta Public Library, NJ) from buying the device and lending it, along with whatever titles patrons have loaded onto it. Each borrower can download one book paid for by the library from the Kindle store, so successive users have access to all the titles on it to date; the device holds 200-plus.

With its proprietary format, Audible posed a similar problem when it became the first company to distribute downloadable audio. Ironically, Audible initially pitched its downloadable service to libraries. In 2002, a handful of libraries, including the huge King County Library System (KCLS), WA, signed on as early adopters. KCLS purchased hundreds of players and content, loading individual titles onto the devices for patrons.

Audible never went so far as to allow library patrons to download titles from home. Soon, it pulled out of libraries altogether to concentrate solely on the consumer market. At the same time, librarians turned to vendors like OverDrive and netLibrary (partnering with Recorded Books), whose titles didn't require proprietary playback devices. Those companies listened to librarians' needs, eventually making their downloadables available to multiple users simultaneously—and from the library's web site. The one machine those audiobooks can't be played on continues to be the iPod, since Apple has never made its software available to the library market.

In the consumer world, Audible has become compatible with multiple players, including iPods (it has a lucrative sales arrangement with Apple, which features its audiobooks on iTunes), but it has never abandoned its one book, one borrower business model. That model is antithetical to the one audiobook, multiple borrower licensing model librarians worked with vendors to achieve. Moreover, Audible books come wrapped in DRM (digital rights management) that concerns some users who wonder whether the files can and will remain usable decades down the line—an issue for libraries that extends to the Kindle as well.

The Amazon deal could mean, however, some change on the DRM front and perhaps—if librarians raise their voices—on the multiple user front, as well. As of this writing, Sparta PL hadn't heard from Amazon. If Amazon is smart, Sparta won't. As lenders of hardware and software, including downloadable audiobooks and ebooks and their various players, libraries help promote the very companies that would prevent these same libraries from disseminating their products. So every time one of those companies comes knocking, remind them of that—loud and clear.