E-books and e-readers: The future is here!

You know that obnoxious guy—the one who gets a new gadget and has to go around telling all his friends (and often, total strangers) about the glories of his shiny, wondrous new toy? I’ll admit that since I got my e-reader, I have very much become That Guy. I thought that in this post, we could discuss some of the many, many digital reading devices on the market, and look at how their advent is changing things in the bookselling and library worlds.

First, let’s discuss some of the products that are available and what they offer. We’ll start with mine, Barnes & Noble’s “nook.” I can read files and books which are in an EPUB format, and I can also read PDF files, which is very helpful when I want to carry around journal articles for class. Like some other e-readers, it uses a screen which is not backlit¹, so it’s far easier on the eyes than a computer screen. Amazon’s Kindle is fairly similar, and Sony’s e-reader is pretty comparable, too. Apple’s iPad is larger, heavier and backlit. It carries a much heftier price, and can do about as much as a small laptop. Next, although I have never seen one other than in a photo, the Skiff seems to be a really intriguing reader for periodicals². It sort of looks like a big, bendy, plastic newspaper—which preserves the intended layout of articles. Then, there is the QUE reader, which I was told that Barnes & Noble recently bought, and it’s supposed to be more a kind of business-oriented e-reader (supporting more than just PDFs—things like PowerPoint files³, etc.). Two final items worth mentioning are Blio and Copia, which are now still just software, but they stand out because of the way they make reading more of a multimedia experience, including links, audio, and even social sites where people form book groups and list favorite reading material⁴.

It seems like e-books and e-readers are becoming a more widespread phenomenon. They have already appeared as topics in advice columns (one owner asks if downloading a pirated e-book after she had already paid for the hardcover “counts” as actual piracy⁵). Also, let us not forget the real measure of something’s popularity—its Facebook presence. As of this writing (9 p.m., June 5, 2010), the Kindle boasts 64,302 Facebook fans, the nook 16,395, and the Apple iPad 125,374⁶.

As these devices become more widely available, affordable, and user-friendly, it doesn’t take a bookseller or librarian to notice that there are big changes coming to the industry. What’s going to happen to the hardcover/paperback divide, once e-books take over? How long will readers have to wait before a new title drops its price? One researcher mentions author compensation, and how different that’s going to be in an e-book world⁷. Publishers and their strict adherence to certain formats will likely be changing soon, as well⁸ (think of a newspaper’s column layout, or reference maps in epic fantasy fiction books).

What does this all mean for libraries? Josh Hadro states in his article, “It’s time to start prepping on the ways our patrons will soon be expecting to interact with content⁹”. My own rewording: We’d better get ready! If any library user is as excited as I am about e-readers, they’re going to be wanting to get some of their digital content from the same great place they go to check out the latest print books. William Dougherty mentions in his article about e-readers that a library in Florida has just announced that they will be making Kindles available to users later this year¹⁰. Could other libraries be far behind? Many are already at the forefront of providing digital loans, at least, and are helping new users understand how to use various formats. A local library to which I am partial offers digital material, and has an excellent FAQ about how to go about using several different digital download processes, from using Adobe EPUB and PDFs, to using Overdrive. Check out the Digital Catalog and Download Center link at Dearborn Library.

It will be challenging to incorporate e-books and readers into traditional libraries. There are, as one author says, quoting a review of the Consumer Electronics Show which was littered with new devices, “Officially Too Damn Many E-book Readers¹¹”. You can see from the website above just how many ways files and books can be saved and loaned. It can get confusing for both patrons and librarians, which is all the more reason for us to stay on top of technological changes like these so we can help users.

In addition to the changes involving author compensation and e-book/hardcover releases, it seems that there are many challenges on the horizon which deal with the way libraries acquire e-books. Patrons may have more say in choosing the content—for example, if enough users click on an e-book, the library would get it automatically¹². Many libraries will also begin to pick up e-books first, and then buy print if the digital version is unavailable¹³. This leads us to consider another challenge, which is in regard to the ratio of digital to print acquisitions—put simply, money spent on one format leaves less money to purchase other formats. All sorts of legal issues exist in the digital rights world, but perhaps in the future, buying one format may entitle readers or libraries to all formats. It all leads us back to the idea that many, many aspects of book buying and lending will be changing in the future. It is our duty as information stewards and disseminators to stay informed and upbeat about these changes as they occur. With the intense marketing being done in the e-reader arena, we can be assured that our patrons will!

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¹Dougherty, W.C. (2010). E-readers? Passing fad or trend of the future?. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(3), 254-256.
²Kho, N.D. (2010, April). E-readers and publishing's bottom line: the opportunities and challenges presented by the explosion of the e-reader market. EContent, Retrieved from http://www.econtentmag.com
³Hadro, J. (2010). In front of (e)readers. Library Journal, 135(3), 24.
⁴Ibid.
⁵Cohen, R. (2010, April 4). E-book dodge. The New York Times Magazine, 15.
⁶Please refer to Facebook.
⁷Kho, N.D. (2010, April). E-readers and publishing's bottom line: the opportunities and challenges presented by the explosion of the e-reader market. EContent, Retrieved from http://www.econtentmag.com
⁸Ibid.
⁹Hadro, J. (2010). In front of (e)readers. Library Journal, 135(3), 24.
¹⁰Dougherty, W.C. (2010). E-readers? Passing fad or trend of the future?. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36(3), 254-256.
¹¹Hadro, J. (2010). In front of (e)readers. Library Journal, 135(3), 24.
¹²van Gisbergen, M., Profera, E., & Stamison, C.M. (2009). A Librarian's view of ebook acquisitions. Information Today, 26(11), 14.
¹³Ibid.