An Investigation of Ebook Lending in
UK Public Libraries
Christopher Gibson
Department of Computer and Information Sciences
University of Strathclyde
cg@cis.strath.ac.uk
Introduction
• Study took place late 2011 to early 2012
• Few public libraries providing ebook lending services
• Looking to chart the scale of ebook lending and look at the various
lending models
• Research questions
• Methodology
• Key findings
• Conclusions
• Future work
Research questions
1. What are the current methods and models of ebook delivery that
have been chosen by public libraries and why have these methods
and models been adopted?
2. What is the scale and scope of ebook lending in UK public
libraries?
3. What are the challenges that public libraries face when delivering
ebook services?
4. How can an effective ebook service be developed?
Methodology
• Four phase pragmatic mixed-methods approach to investigate
ebook lending in UK public libraries:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Website survey
Questionnaire
FOI (Freedom of Information) requests
Interviews with professional and para-professional staff in five
Scottish public library authorities
1. Website survey
•
Surveyed 204 UK library authority websites
•
Established first look at ebook lending services in UK public
libraries
•
Examined how ebook lending services were presented online
•
Identified third-party aggregators
Key findings – website survey
• As of September 2011 38% of library authorities in UK were
lending ebooks at this time (compared with 8% in 2010)
• Mix of third-party aggregators – OverDrive a clear market leader
• 10 library authorities offered ebook lending from more than one
aggregator
• Majority of websites run by local council with varying degrees of
“discoverability” of ebook services – 5% ran own website
• Majority of libraries did not have ebook content integrated into
OPAC
2. Questionnaire
• Questionnaire was sent to 204 library authorities
• Completed questions for either lending or non-lending
• 99 completed questionnaires returned - 54 lending 45 non-lending
Key findings - questionnaire
Lending
• No libraries had “special groups” for ebook use
• One library charged for ebook lending, 9 others said they were
considering charging
• 22 of 54 offered training for library users, most common method
was drop-in sessions
• No libraries offered loans of ebook reading hardware
• 28 saw lending models as unsuitable
• Strong agreement, 49 from 54 that lending ebook was part of core
public library remit
Key findings – questionnaire
Non-lending
• Majority of libraries that weren’t lending were considering doing so
• Libraries had multiple reasons for not offering ebook lending
services:
1. Expense
2. Unsuitable lending models
3. No choice of aggregators
4. Lack of titles
5. Lack of demand
6. Lack of Kindle support
7. Drain on staff time
8. IT issues
3. FOI
• FOI requests sent to 199 library authorities
• FOI designed to look at:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
usage levels
costs
terms of contracts
consortium arrangements
unauthorised access
steps taken to comply with disability equality duty
FOI – Key findings
• People don’t like getting FOI requests!
• 145 libraries of the 204 (71%) lent either ebooks or audiobooks
online
• 111 authorities used a single aggregator, 28 used two, 5 used
three, and one used 4
• OverDrive was still the market leader
• Data was returned from all 199 authorities although some data was
deemed to be commercial confidential
• Average length of contract was three years
FOI – Key findings
• Average number of ebooks held was 600-700 although some
authorities held less than 100 and others over 2500, this was
correlated with library authority size
• Average number of loans was between 200 -300 per month, this
data was difficult to extrapolate as libraries conflated ebook and
audiobook loans
• Average spend was £12,000 per year but this varied greatly and 35
authorities did not release the information due to commercial
confidentiality
• No libraries reported being aware of unauthorised access
• Small number of libraries, 11, had done impact assessment under
public sector equality duty
4. Interviews
• Interviews undertaken in five library authorities in Scotland
beginning in January 2012
• A mix of urban and rural library authorities
• Interviews with professional staff lasted approximately one hour
• Interviews with para-professional staff lasted approximately 15
mins and took place in branch libraries
Interviews – Key findings
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lack of titles – difficulty in purchasing titles
Unwillingness to promote offer
Duplication of effort – IT problems, advertising
Varying levels of staff “buy in”
Had to tighten joining procedures
Problems delivering training – lack of wifi facilities
Problems lending ebook readers – service sometimes as elitist as
users without access to hardware are excluded
• No contact with users of service / problems collecting data
Conclusions
• Public libraries delivering ebook content in a homogeneous manner
• More lobbying to publishers needed – need to release more
ebooks for public libraries to lend
• More contact with users of service
• Loan of hardware to special groups and public
• Consortia?– eBooks for Wales model? Or perhaps something more
radical?
Future work
• How can public libraries lend ebook reading hardware?
• What would be the benefits and potential problems for a
national consortium?
• What happens to ebooks when contracts with aggregators
expires and is not renewed?
• Would it be possible to have own platform for lending ebooks?
Questions?