Ian Singer, publisher of LJ and School Library Journal, introduced the group's first virtual summit, Ebooks: Libraries at the Tipping Point, with results from a proprietary survey on ebooks in public, school, and academic libraries. The number one barrier to a patron's reading an ebook, Singer reported, was that many patrons across all three types of libraries are unaware of ebooks' availability in their institutions.
Nevertheless, the survey, "The Growing Importance of Ebooks in U.S. Library Collections," reveals the inroads ebooks are making at libraries nationwide. It had a total of 1,842 respondents, with 781 from public libraries, 364 from academic libraries, and 697 from school libraries.
The survey serves several purposes: to fill an information gap about ebooks in libraries, to measure the penetration of ebooks into library channels, to benchmark the current state of ebooks in libraries, and to identify trends and help predict the future in this area.
"We believe libraries will play a critical role in larger ebook adoption," Singer told the over 2100 attendees. They included 820 from public libraries, 435 from academic libraries, and 468 from school libraries. Among those participating in the summit, there were also 112 from publishers and 47 from nonsponsoring vendors, as well as 66 MLS students.
Singer went on to present selected findings from the survey. A few highlights:
Ebook availability Academic libraries, in particular, appear to have embraced ebooks, with only 6% of academic library respondents not delivering ebooks to their users; the average number of ebooks available in academic libraries that do provide them was 33,830.
Among public libraries, 28% of respondents said that they carried no ebooks, but those that did had on average 1,529 ebooks.
School libraries had the fewest ebooks, with 67% reporting none, and, on average, only 49 ebooks available at those that did have ebooks.
Ebook circulation What of the future? Most respondents agreed that ebook circulation will be on the rise over the next year. Large majorities of public (84%), academic (77%), and school libraries (65%) believed it would increase, while only 1% in each category believed ebook circulation would decrease.
The majority of respondents did not believe, however, that the popularity of ebooks was having any impact on increased circulation of other formats such as print or media for this new category of library users.
Ereading devices for loan? The survey indicated that many patrons, at least in the short term, will be unable to borrow ereaders from the library.
The large majority of libraries in the survey (69% of public, 63% of academic, and 57% of school libraries) do not loan ereaders. Only 7% of public, 11% of academic, and 6% of school libraries said they do so, with 24%, 26%, and 37%, respectively, considering it.
Ebook budgets The survey also indicated that the amount that libraries spend on ebooks, while relatively small now, is growing considerably.
Public libraries spend a mean of 2.5% of their materials budget on ebooks, with school libraries slightly higher at 2.7%. However, in five years, that percentage, for both public and school libraries, is predicted to increase to 7.4%.
Academic libraries surveyed spend more, with a mean percentage of 7.2% currently, expected to go up to 18% in five years.
[The full survey will be available for purchase by the end of October. Individual survey reports on academic, school, or public libraries will be available for $750 each, and the full report will be available for $1500. For more information, please contact Roy Futterman, LJ and School Library Journal advertising sales director, at rfutterman@mediasourceinc.com.]
Reader Comments (17)
Thanks for the succinct overview. Wish I had been able to attend the virtual summit. Followed tweets from attendees but found the short messages left gaping holes. This LJ summary of the stats is real helpful.
I like ebooks, but don't have a Kindle or ereader device and would LOVE to be able to check one out at my library.
All best,
Donna
Posted by Donna Olendorf on September 29, 2010 05:32:11PM
Thanks for the summary. It would be good to hear from someone
who has positive experiences of the affordable supply of e-
books for libraries from wholesalers/supply companies - this
seems to be the key for wider availability.
Posted by Angela S on September 29, 2010 05:45:50PM
The sad thing is there are no wholesalers for ebooks at the
moment.
Currently most of the libraries are purchasing their ebooks
from the Overdrive company which is selling them at hardback
prices if i understand it correctly.
I leave this link because the blog is about ereaders and
ebooks and deals with some of the political and technological
issues of both: http://electronicbook-readers.com/
Posted by Luke Rumfelt on September 30, 2010 03:57:21AM
Wish I had been able to attend the virtual summit. Followed tweets from attendees but found the short messages left gaping holes. This summary of the stats is real helpful. I like e books, but don't have a Kindle or e reader device and would LOVE to be able to check one out at my library.
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