The Future is Not Binary - Building Choice and Diversity

Delivering digital publishing is frustrating, not because we all clearly see it and share the vision but because we clearly don’t have a shared vision or even shared principles on which to build the vision. It’s complex, will have a constant stream of market and technology surprises and just when we are sitting comfortably, something will change. Is this any different from any other environment?

The challenges in publishing is that it’s not just the technology that is changing, its the creation of the content, the rights associated with it, the development of these, the market and sales channel, the sell able product itself, the consumer and how they use it and even the life expectancy of the rights and content themselves. Is there anything to be left unchanged? Even the physical book itself will be changed by the process. We often hear people saying that digitisation is the biggest change since Gutenberg. Well we would say that Gutenberg was a relatively small change in comparison and the rate of change now is also significantly faster.

So will we all be reading ebooks on ereaders, online via notebooks, on mobile phones? Will we be buying books as outright purchases as we do today, or as chapters, or collections? Will we be renting books for downloading to our devices or online access? Will we be given free access to all content on a different business model such as advertising paid or continue to buy to read? Will the library versus retail model collide or live in harmony? Will publishers and booksellers survive?
We can’t predict the future only prepare for it.

We have written much about the ever elusive word collaboration. It is difficult to envisage any sector so complex, diverse and competitive. We only need to open any industry newsletter to see that collaboration is often a bridge too far and although it may be practiced by a few, it is all too often a no go area for many.

So what about that other word interoperability? Can we envisage a world where technology will enable us to share by default rather than by design? The current DRM offers are clearly counterproductive and promote the vision of monopoly silos and a clear ambition by some even outside of today’s landscape to dominate. Often the process of dealing with digital files is user unfriendly, complex and too restrictive and today we would suggest is the biggest consumer turn off.

Today we see the start of the consumer demand for mobile content, online content and a potential shift from the old ‘my library’ to ‘my virtual library’. We hear the start of the debate about whether ebook readers as we know them today are mere transient technology that will inevitable end up just as others on the forgotten piles of scrap. The challenge moving forward is to offer choice of what, when and how we read and the associated flexible rights management to achieve this. The challenge today is to start share that vision and to build choice.

What Role Do Libraries Play in the Digital Age?

Many have asked what the role of the library will be in the new digital age? For some it’s about funding, for others information access and other preservation. The relationship between private enterprise and public funding is ever changing and this introduces further new challenges in this digital age.

Richard K Johnson has written a paper ‘Free Our Libraries’ which was commissioned by the Boston Library Consortium with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for last month’s Universal Access Digital Library Summit in Boston. The paper raises the thorny issues of ownership, investment and the current land of the public domain works by the omnivores who are scanning for ownership.

Public domain is that public domain and we must think hard before we open the vaults and let the scanners in on their terms. Some would argue its too late the doors are wide open, the treasures taken and the libraries stand like giant warehouses full of books and cost whilst the traffic moves onto the virtual world.

The other issue not touch in this excellent paper is that of the ‘grey area that sits between public domain and in print. Who decides what book sits where, what can go and what is still in copyright?

The final issue is defining the role of the library in terms of its digital marketplace and relationship with commercial retail. If a library can give free access to digital content why would you buy it elsewhere? In the physical world you had to go there, the book you wanted could be out or unavailable and you had to take it back. Today you just need to register, log on and download. Perhaps we could stagger the release dates such that libraries only can issue new titles after 6 months but that hardly addresses the issue which isn’t going away.

We may not agree with all its thinking and conclusions but it is a paper we recommend you to read.

eBooks For Free

We have raised the question of the role of the library within the ebook world. We have written about Overdrive’s Digital Tour and libraries giving registered members free access to digital from anywhere at any time. Just think you can download books whilst the librarian is asleep in bed and the library all locked up. Yet the debate as to how libraries and retailers will digitally co-exist remains largely unvoiced.

Today we read an article in Reuters which gives us some more insights. It reports that in Phoenix a group of library branches, or should the collective noun be a shelf-full, have created a library of some 50,000 titles of ebooks, audiobooks, music tracks and videos that can be checked out from anywhere for free. The community apparently love it.

Just like books the member selects the titles and checks them out and three weeks later, poof, they disappear.

OverDrive with an estimated inventory of some 100,000 titles and working with 7,500 libraries is a major force behind this quiet revolution. Although the files are downloaded to a PC they can then be transfers to many devices dependant on the library and the file format etc.

What is the position of a library versus a retail outlet? When the books were physical people had to consciously attend the library and find the book, but today they merely search an online inventory and download for free, at anytime, for anywhere.
The question we all need to ask is, why would you expect the consumer to pay for it?

Overdrive Announce US Digital Tour

Marketwatch reports today on Overdrive’s Digital Bus tour across the USA. The bus tour travels under the name www.digitalbookmobile.com as is a programme aimed at introducing the public to digital content in all formats, audiobooks, ebooks, music, videos that are available from their local library and to enable them to ‘immerse themselves into an interactive learning environment.’

The tour kicks off on August 10th in Central Park with The New York Public Library and other events are scheduled in the following days at Queens Borough Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library. The tour will travel across the USA in 2009 and a full schedule is available at www.digitalbookmobile.com. The Digital Bookmobile is hosted by individual libraries in support of their download services and operated by OverDrive inside its 74 foot, 18 wheel tractor-trailer.

The community outreach vehicle is a great idea and certainly could create an engaging experience around the individual library’s digital media collections. The exercise should bring several questions to the table. Are the downloads are free under the public lending rights? Will access be restricted to only local residents? Why should a consumer buy a digital copy when they can rent it for free? Will borrowers be able to download from anywhere for free once they are registered? Is the inventory on offer truly local or is it a library offer from Overdrive and therefore a free white label offer?

The relationship between libraries and bookstores in the digital environment is far more sensitive than in the physical world. Here copies and access were limited and the borrower had to visit the library to both lend and return. In a digital world they merely may just log on, download, consume and it automatically deletes itself at the end of the term. How do bookstore compete with that offer?

The tour is a great idea and the digital outreach a real smart idea but what is the consequenses if it canabalises bookstores sales. Overdrive still get paid, libraries still pay, publishers still achieve library sales, the consumer get content for free but what is the impact on author’s royalties and on the bookstores and campus stores?