E-books. We sell them. Some of my family reads them. Some, like
myself, have not particularly taken to the new format. But, what does all of
this digital publishing mean for libraries and small bookstores?
An article in the Christian Science
Monitor caught my attention recently. (“Battle Over e-books in the Library”
June 18, 2012 p. 43). It outlines the brewing battle over price and usage
between publishers and libraries. In some cases, prices have jumped 700% due to
the possibility of multiple readers reading the same copy and thereby making
the publishers believe the books to be more valuable. Last year, Random House
announced that e-books sold to libraries would expire after being checked out
26 times.
I have watched e-book prices yoyo
as publishers try to gain and understand the e-book market—the underlying
reason for the current tug of war between publishers and libraries. Will the
price be what sways the reader? It did initially with $0.99 books, but
publishers can’t keep up with this loss forever as evidenced by price
increases. Some say the e-book will spell the end to small bookstores, but
right now, I still believe it will be the below or at cost sales of Amazon and
other corporate stores that affect the independent bookstores the most. But
like the e-book publishers, these corporations must recover those lost profits
somewhere…
Here is the link to the CSM article:
Even as a 21 year old from a supposed tech-driven generation, I still prefer the real thing--opening a book and having the pages spread out before me. Only one of my friends has a Nook that was given to her as a gift. I know that she likes it well enough, but in order for any technology to take off, it has to be superior to the original. For me, e-books aren’t better. Maybe it depends on your lifestyle, whenever I take the train in and out of the city, there are many commuters reading their e-books. But for me, it’s not worth the library’s time and money.
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