Transcript Slide 1

“The challenges to migrate print to
ebooks”
Keith Stanley
Blackwell Library Services
UK
LACIG Workshop
27 September 2010
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An ebook is simply a print book in another format….
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….if it is that simple, then why does so much about the
ebook environment appear so complicated?
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Who is publishing ebooks?
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Popular and general publishers
Academic and scholarly publishers
Governments and institutions
Self publishing
• In short…everybody!
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Are ebooks selling?
• Amazon claims to have sold 143 digital books for its e-reader, the
Kindle, for every 100 hardback books from May to July 2010 (note –
hardback sales, not paperback!)
• Self published materials (especially fiction) is more affordable and
very prolific
• Classic literature and un-copyrighted material is free or at very low
price point
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Are ebooks cannibalising the print book market?
• In the US, it does not appear that the growth of ebooks is damaging
sales of physical books. According to the Association of American
Publishers, hardback sales are still growing in the US, up 22% this
year. (July 2010)
• The association says that ebook sales in the US account for 6% of
the consumer book market.
• In the UK it is a slightly different picture, according to the Publisher’s
Association Digital sales were around £150m last year, over 80% in
the academic-professional sector, with only £5m in consumer sales
• The US leads the way, but other markets will follow
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Core challenges: print to e
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What content is wanted in ebook format?
Copyright and Digital Rights Management (DRM)
Consumer and user expectations
Pricing and profitability
Various formats and the lack of standardisation
Discovery tools – finding and acquiring ebooks
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What Content is wanted in ebook format?
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Publishers have to consider Frontlist vs backlist
Academic publishers reluctant to make textbooks readily available
Never again should a book be out-of-print or not available
More than just English language
Local materials
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Copyright and DRM (Digital Rights Management)
• Publishers ultimately want to protect their content and manage it
tightly
• In academic ebooks, restrictions are in place on printing, copying
and cutting & pasting
• Open Access (OA) licensing arrangements
• Platform restrictions (e.g. locked pdf)
• Single user vs multiple user
• Challenges to publishers on copyrighted content (e.g. illustrations
and graphs)
• Archiving and storage, ownership of ebooks
• ePiracy concerns (peer-to-peer sharing)
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Consumer and user expectations
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Easy access
Downloadable material
No time or usage restrictions
“anytime anyplace”
Single user access can be frustrating
Ability to print and copy with ease
Manage their own collections
Not feel “tied in” to a publisher platform
Ability to put material on a device of choice (e-reader; mobile carrier
–iphone, ipod, ipod touch etc; laptop, ipad)
• Value added content (metadata, web links, open url etc)
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Pricing and profitability
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Publishers do not want to lose profitability
Users expect a good deal
Less cost involved in creating an ebook…and consumers know this
Trade ebooks are a lot cheaper than their print counterparts
Academic books are matching hardback pricing
Contractual issues on Digital Rights – author royalties
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Various formats and the lack of standardisation
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No industry standardisation on DRM
Most licensing arrangements are complicated
Aggregator platforms (ebrary, EBL, MyiLibrary etc)
Various platforms (pdf, plain text, html, Amazon Kindle, TomeRaider,
etc)
• Rough count: 18 formats with 25 supporting hardware platform types
• Attempts to tie-in the consumer on a brand or publisher
• Editing of ebooks – quality varies, self published works can be
poorly proof-read and edited
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Formats
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Plain text .txt
HTML .html
PostScript .ps
Portable Document Format .pdf
DjVu .djvu
EPUB (IDPF).epub
FictionBook.fb2
Mobipocket .prc,.mobi
Kindle .azw
eReader .pdb
TealDoc .pdb
Broadband eBook .lrf, .lrx
WOLF .wol
Tome Raider .tr2, .tr3
ArghosReader .aeh
Microsoft Reader .lit
Multimedia EBook .exe
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Hardware Readers
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Amazon Kindle 2, DX
Amazon Kindle 3
Android Devices
Apple iOS Devices
Azbooka WISEreader
Barnes & Noble Nook
Bookeen Cybook Gen3,
OpusCOOL-ER Classic
Foxit eSlick
Hanlin e-Reader V3
Hanvon WISEreader
iRex iLiad
Iriver Story
Kobo eReader
Nokia N900
NUUTbook 2
Viewsonic VEB612
OLPC XO, Sugar
Onyx Boox 60
Pocketbook 301 Plus, 302, 360°
Sony Reader
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Discovery tools – finding and acquiring ebooks
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Finding ebooks – Amazon, Blackwell, Kalahari etc
Academic discovery tools (Blackwell’s Collection Manager etc)
Collection development
Book supplier relationships
Print has advantage of many well established outlets (bookshops,
online, supermarkets, second-hand market etc)
• Ebooks only live in the online environment at present
• Managing collections
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Conclusions and going forward
• The challenges are very different for academic publishers from their
“trade” cousins
• Consumer expectations are currently not always met, perhaps they
are too high and at times unrealistic
• Need for more standardisation of platforms, formats and most
importantly DRM
• Open access is the ideal…and undoubtedly the future
• Distribution and discovery remain challenges
• Ebooks will become more prolific and more sophisticated in their
content delivery
• Ebooks will match and in many cases exceed their print
counterparts in sales and usage
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THANK YOU
QUESTIONS
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