Establishing an Ebook Beachhead:
2011 Carol A. Kearney Leadership
Retreat
Josh Hadro
Executive Editor, Digital Products
Library Journal, School Library Journal,
and The Horn Book
jhadro@mediasourceinc.com
@Hadro on Twitter
Outline
• A perspective on the big ebook picture
• Stats on ebooks in school libraries (and some
publics, too)
• Ereaders in schools
• Ebooks in browsers
• Wrapping up:
How can we make this the most useful for you?
Themes for today
• Think broadly about ebooks + ereading
(decoupled perspective)
• Establish a beachhead (ebook + ereading, ASAP)
Who am I?
November 19, 2007
http://correlate.googlelabs.com/search?e=library+ebooks+&t=weekly
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/communityacademiclibraries/887522419/the_pre-college_life_of_readers.html.csp
Q: If you were given an ebook reader as part of a
school package, do you think you would use ebooks
for school and pleasure reading?
“I might use them, but with the whole problem that you can only
download certain books with certain different ereaders, it doesn't
seem like a really good option.”
“I'd still much rather have the text—I write everywhere, I
highlight everything, I like to be able to know where I am in the
book.”
http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S26/64/38E35/
“By far the most troublesome feedback we received during the study
was from a faculty member who felt that his students' comprehension
of the reading materials suffered from use of the Kindle DX.”
http://www.reed.edu/cis/about/kindle_pilot/Reed_Kindle_report.pdf
Donald J. Leu
John and Maria Neag Endowed Chair in Literacy and Technology
Professor of Education
Director, New Literacies Research Lab
http://www.education.uconn.edu/directory/details.cfm?id=46
http://www.slideshare.net/djleu/presentations
"Ereaders to me are a
transitionary phase."
The current hardware frenzy obscures the fact
that students ages 8-18 spend more time reading
online (48 minutes per day) than offline (43
minutes per day), and have for some years now.
ebooks ≠ ereaders
Demographics
• 873 respondents
• 91% public schools
• 92% “Library
media Specialist”
or “Teacher
librarian”
• Mean # of
students: 716
MW,
26%
S/SW,
34%
W,
18%
NE,
23%
80
70
2010
2011
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Elementary
School type
Middle/Junior High School
HS
Other
Do you offer ebooks?
2011
Yes,
33%
2010
Yes,
44%
No,
67%
No,
56%
Yes,
44%
2011
0%
25% 50%
No,
56%
75% 100%
Ebooks offered
400
350
300
386
250
2010
2011
200
150
100
49
50
0
Mean number of ebooks offered
Ebook categories
2010
2011
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
C Fic
C
Picture
Nonfic books
YA fic
YA
nonfic
Ref
2010
51
39
34
23
24
42
2011
45
46
31
27
21
37
We added a few new categories for
the 2011 survey.
• Classic literature: 37%
• Graphic novels: 14%
• Textbooks: 4%
Devices
80
72
2010
2011
70
60
57
50
40
30
22
20
9
10
13
15
0
School PC/Laptop
E-ink reader
iPad, smartphone,
etc.
Schools circulating pre-loaded
ereading devices
18
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
6
2010
2011
Preferred reading format
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
2010
2011
Dedicated
ereader
(Kindle, Sony
Reader, etc.)
ePub
HTML
40
35
30
+36%
25
20
15
+26%
10
5
0
Expected increase in ebook circulation
2010
2011
Public library data
(Caveat:
preliminary data)
76%
public libraries
offering ebooks
(up from 72% in 2010)
Dramatic increase in ebook requests
No, no
requests for
ebooks, 3%
Yes,
dramatic
increase,
63%
93%
No, request
level is
unchanged,
4%
Yes, slight
increase,
30%
Size of ebook collection
>2500
1000-2499
Number of ebooks
750-999
500-749
2011
2010
250-499
100-249
50-99
25-49
<25
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
Collection variety offered
Adult Fic
Best sellers
Adult nonfic
YA fic
Children's fic
Children's nonfic
YA nonfic
Picture books
Reference
Graphic novels
Other
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Preferred reading devices
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
Personal
computer
Library
Dedicated
computer ereader
Other
portable
Don't
know
2010
61%
16%
52%
36%
25%
2011
51%
4%
86%
60%
1%
Patron preferred file format
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
ePub
Dedicated
ereader
format
Other
mobile
device
Don't
know
20%
44%
35%
24%
23%
6%
63%
42%
24%
2%
PDF
Full-text
HTML
2010
42%
2011
23%
A quick interlude:
Trade publishing is still figuring it out,
same as libraries…
• HarperCollins – 26-loan cap
• Hachette (Little Brown Kids, Teens, etc.)
• MacMillan (Children's, Holt for Young Readers,
etc.)
• Simon & Schuster
Can we wait to go heavy into e?
Shouldn’t we prepare for what’s
to come and not focus just on
what we’ve got now?
-- Linda W. Braun,
YALSA Blog Manager and High School Librarian, and YALSA Immediate Past
President
http://yalsa.ala.org/blog/2011/04/21/pointcounterpoint-hot-topics-in-teen-services-how-far-to-gowith-e-collections/
Establish a beachhead
for digital books
http://www.libraryjournal.com/slj/printissue/currentissue/8
57830-427/as_goes_california_a_flawed.html.csp
A few words about hardware
ereaders…
If you’re going to go the ereader
route…
• Start with what Buffy Hamilton
has done
▫ Seriously, read:
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com
VS
http://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/2011
/07/27/why-we-wont-purchase-more-kindlesat-the-unquiet-library/
• Follow her ereader experiments and trials
• Mine her presentations for the gold in them hills:
http://www.slideshare.net/buffyjhamilton
(84 presentations!)
http://lib-girl.blogspot.com/
http://edukindle.ning.com/
...but you don't have to go
the way of the hardware
ereader.
you don't need a Kindle,
you have the desktop."
-- Anita Beaman, Director of the School Librarian
Program at Illinois State University
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/
891266-312/tech_trends_iste_2011_don.html.csp
You can use commercial ereader desktop apps…
But they’re not ideal.
• Difficult library
management.
• Some content is still
ereader only.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/?cat=833709&pro=379&store=ebook
Any variety of other content sources
•
•
•
•
•
Follett Shelf
Capstone Library
Tumblebooks
Blio
Etc.
Free children’s and YA ebooks
http://openlibrary.org/
http://openlibrary.org/search?q=subject%3A%22lending+library%22+AND
+%22juvenile+fiction%22&has_fulltext=true
“A Library for the World's Children”
http://en.childrenslibrary.org/
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Category:Children%27s_Bookshelf
More free ebooks
• Free eBooks, MobileReads Wiki
▫ http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Free_eBooks
• Storyline Online
▫ http://www.storylineonline.net/
• Baen Free Library
▫ http://www.baen.com/library/books.asp
• Children’s Storybooks Online
▫ http://www.magickeys.com/books/
• NYPL’s children’s ebooks bookmarks
▫ http://kids.nypl.org/reading/Childrensebooks.cfm
Potentially make use of other
resources in your community
http://search.overdrive.com/ListLibraries.aspx
Desktop ereaders
http://calibre-ebook.com/
http://www.adobe.com/products/
digitaleditions/
Browser ereaders
http://ibisreader.com/
http://www.epubread.com
http://bookworm.oreilly.com/
More options (many more)
• http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/Ebook_software
Leadership may mean
creating ebooks, too
http://calibre-ebook.com/
http://www.epubbud.com/
http://www.epubbud.com/
Looking forward
http://www.slideshare.net/bryanwb/html5-js-thefuture-of-open-education
Epub 3
• Location aware
• Scriptable
• Embedded
images, movies,
files, etc.
• Interactivity…
http://threepress.org/static/labs/geo/
Themes for today
• Stay broad with your ideas about ebooks +
ereading (decoupled perspective)
• Establish a beachhead (ebook + ereading, ASAP)
ARLINGTON, VA
September 22 & 23
Final data coming this fall:
http://www.thedigitalshift.com/research/
http://ebook-summit.com/
For more info:
Josh Hadro
Executive Editor, Digital Products
Library Journal, School Library Journal,
and The Horn Book
jhadro@mediasourceinc.com
@hadro on Twitter
Thank you!