Many Kindle, Nook owners are clueless about borrowing library e-books

BY MIKE FLACY

As Amazon and Barnes & Noble continue to promote the use of e-readers among customers, libraries haven't quite been able to get the word out about free e-book borrowing.

According to a new study conducted by Pew’s Internet & American Life Project, nearly six out of ten library patrons weren’t even aware that they could borrow e-books for free from their library. Furthermore, only twelve percent of Americans above the age of 16 have borrowed an e-book from their local library in the past twelve months. Specific to technology, fifty-three percent of tablet owners didn’t know about the availability of library e-books and 48 percent of Kindle and Nook owners were just as uninformed. In addition, approximately half of respondents that have read at least one e-book in the past year weren’t aware about library e-book borrowing .

Of the small portion of people that have checked out an e-book in the last year, half of those people haven’t been able to locate a particular book in an electronic format or found a long waiting list to get access to the book.

Since libraries pay for a limited number of copies to legally lend out, many libraries use an email waiting list to notify a patron about the availability of the book. Once the book is returned by another patron, the next patron on the waiting list receives an email and has a limited amount of time to download the title. An additional eighteen percent of those people were able to locate the correct book, but the book format wasn’t compatible with their e-reader or tablet. 

Americans that do have a library card are much more likely to own and use more technology than people without cards. Pew researchers found that eighty-seven percent of library card holders owned their own desktop or laptop computer compared to sixty-seven percent of people without a library card. However, that difference was much smaller with mobile phone ownership. 

Likely interesting to companies like Amazon that sell e-books, over forty percent of the people that regularly read e-books checked out from the library purchased the last book that they read. In addition, library card holders also read about twice as many books per year as people without a library card. 

This is likely one reason why Amazon promotes the Lending Library feature in order to encourage Kindle owners to use the e-reader more and discover new books. When it comes to finding new books, an e-book borrower is much more likely to get a book recommendation from an online review over a recommendation from a staff member at a bookstore or a librarian. 

When Pew researchers asked librarians about the influence of e-books on the library, many librarians stated that library patrons were visiting the physical library location less and seeking out information about the library’s collection through the Internet. In addition, the purchasing policy is shifting at most libraries to free up funds to purchase more copies of e-books. Money to fund these purchases is being moved from physical, printed copies as well as audio books on compact disc. The role of librarians is also shifting to a larger role in technical support in order to help library patrons download copies of e-books to their devices as well as search the library catalog through an online site instead of a local database.

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gadgets/many-kindle-nook-owners-are-clueless-about-borrowing-library-e-books/#ixzz1ymNgM4DF

Most U.S. readers unaware of e-books at libraries - poll

By Joseph O'Leary

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Though Kindles and Nooks are becoming almost as common as books, more than half of all U.S. readers don't know they can borrow e-books from their local library, a Pew Center poll showed on Friday.

The poll showed 62 percent of readers didn't know if their library had e-books for lending, and only 12 percent of Americans 16 and older who read e-books had borrowed at least one from a library in the past year.

"The most important thing libraries can do is make sure e-books are accessible through the rest of the library system," said Micah May, the director of strategy at the New York Public Library, about raising e-book lending awareness.

Of those who had borrowed e-books, 66 percent said their library's selection was at least "good," while only 4 percent thought theirs was "poor," the survey said.

There are difficulties, occasionally, with the process, with 56 percent of borrowers saying their libraries didn't have a particular e-book while 52 percent found there was a waiting list to borrow a book they wanted. Some 18 percent had incompatible readers for the e-books they wanted.

May said most e-book lending problems were due to the current library e-book distribution system. On Thursday, book publisher Penguin agreed to digitally lend its books to the NYPL, joining Random House and HarperCollins to become only the third of the "Big Six" publishing companies to lend e-books through libraries.

Simon and Schuster, Macmillan and Hachette don't lend new e-books through libraries, according to Publisher's Weekly.

Print readers expressed interest in e-books, though. Of those who don't borrow e-books, 46 percent said they'd be at least somewhat likely to borrow a device pre-loaded with a book, while 32 percent would be at least somewhat interested in learning how to use an e-reader or download e-books.

Those who borrow e-books are much heavier readers than those who don't, averaging six more books than non-borrowers last year.

The lack of knowledge about libraries and e-books means many readers still buy; 55 percent of e-book readers with library cards prefer to buy their e-books, while 46 percent said they prefer purchasing printed books.

The purchasing numbers lessen with those who borrow e-books; 33 percent of e-book borrowers prefer to buy e-books and 57 percent prefer to borrow them.

Reading is still important to many Americans. Fifty-eight percent of those 16 and older have library cards, while 69 percent said the library was important to them.

The Pew poll surveyed 2,986 Americans aged 16 and older by phone with a margin of error of 2 percentage points. (Reporting By Joseph O'Leary; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)

Source:http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/wire-news/most-us-readers-unawaree-books-at-libraries-poll_721171.html

First Library in India to lend Amozon Kindles

KOZHIKODE: The 75-year-old Desaposhini Public Library here has created history of sorts by becoming the first in the entire country to lend pocket-sized Amazon Kindles to its members. Each member can borrow an e-book reader - a Kindle can accommodate as many as 3,000 books-- for up to 20 days.

"We started the initiative after we got five Amazon Kindles as donation. The main intention was to attract the young generation to reading. The initial feedback has been very promising. The entire community is upbeat and we are flooded with enquiries for membership mostly from the youth," said Krishna Kumar, president of the library.

He said that the library, which has a membership base of 8,000, has amassed a collection of 2.4 lakh e-books. "We think that by embracing the digital revolution we can make the library more attractive to the tech-oriented younger generation," he said.

A P Karthik, who donated the e-readers, said that over two lakh e-books have either been purchased from Amazon or belonged to the free books category without any copyright issues. The library also has plans to digitize rare books. "We are eagerly waiting for the response of our readers. If they are open to adapt to the new system then we will think of adding more titles,"Krishna Kumar said, adding that they had approached the government and MPs to raise funds for the project.

But already the digital reading culture has many takers in the city. "It is like walking home with a library. First I had apprehensions on reading whole books on e-readers, but the device with its unique screen provided a very comfortable reading experience. It is similar to reading a book in your hand with the added convenience of knowing you have ten other books that you can switch to at any moment, said Suchitra Karthik.

Library officials are chalking out a viable lending mechanism for the hi-tech gadgets which cost $100 each. "We are thinking of getting the devices insured and taking a deposit from members to make the devices accessible for all," Krishna Kumar said.

Source: Times of India