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Library eBooks Coming Soon to Amazon Kindle! But At What Cost?
May 13, 2011
Posted in: News
Let’s look at few examples.
Amazon will know exactly how many Kindle owners are library borrowers. This is huge information as we advance in the evolution of ebooks. Libraries should have access to these numbers. Amazon won’t even confirm the exact number of Kindles they’ve sold. Yes OverDrive should be able to tell us numbers and percentages for how many of our borrowers are Kindle owners. But what I would really like to know is how many Kindle owners also borrow from their public library.
Amazon will know exactly what percentage of library checkouts lead to purchase. We know that borrowing books from a library doesn’t hurt sales, and in fact it improves them. There has been research. But now Amazon will have the cold hard numbers that show what percentage of people borrow a book from the library then buy it from Amazon. They might even know if you borrowed an ebook then bought a print copy. This is so important as we (and Amazon) move forward in negotiating our place in the ebook world.
Amazon is going to have access to a LOT of stats about library user habits, both borrowing and buying. These are just two examples. This is very valuable information as we advance with the development of ebooks, and the role libraries play. This is information libraries need and should have. While I am thrilled personally that I’ll be able to use library ebooks on my Kindle, and professionally that I’ll no longer have to tell Kindle owners that they can’t borrow ebooks from the library because Amazon doesn’t allow it, I can’t help be concerned that in the end we have made an very uneven trade.
Recommended reading:
- How eBook Catalogs at Public Libraries Drive Publishers’ Book Sales and Profits
- After Kindle Lending, the Deluge | Josh Hadro
- Kindle Lending Library | Jason Griffey
- Kindle Library Lending and OverDrive – What it means for libraries and schools | OverDrive
- Questions we should be asking about Kindle Library Lending | Sarah Houghton-Jan
- Amazon to Launch Library Lending for Kindle Books | Stephen Abram
- Houston, We Have A Problem | Andy Woodworth
- Some Questions for Overdrive and Amazon about the Kindle Lending Library | Bobbi Newman
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-posted by Bobbi Newman, Library Renewal Contributing Editor and Advocate
[...] From Library Renewal: [...]
As I see it, the problem is much simpler. Overdrive ebooks cost and have rights, like maximum checkouts, only insofar as Amazon and publishers want them to have. Libraries pay and are licensed separately from consumer sales. This is in contrast to physical books, which can be bought from anyone at consumer prices and lent out indefinitely because they require no licenses or proprietary platforms.
At present it’s in Amazon’s interest to accelerate Kindle adoption, and Kindle’s already sizable share. Once ereaders are ubiquitous, library patrons demand ebooks and libraries have gutted their physical collections, ebook prices and the terms will get worse and worse. Amazon is going to know exactly how things shake out–they’ll know exactly how lending affects sales. And as a business, with total power over their platform, they’ll be sure to raise the library ebook cost to cover that difference. Library lending was the original free lunch. Amazon will charge you for ketchup.
Amazon isn’t stupid. They think ahead. What does it say about libraries that they are rushing headlong into a format that will screw them in the end?
“and it is making me wonder if we should have done a better job negotiating our deal.”
We? We as in libraries? Libraries didn’t negotiate any deal. OverDrive, a vendor that leases e-books to libraries, did. I completely agree with your post that libraries aren’t going to be the huge winners in this deal, but it isn’t like we even had a seat at the table. OverDrive did, but libraries didn’t. If libraries don’t want to lose this battle, we need to build our own platform, kind of like what the Ann Arbor District Library is doing with music.
Quote: “…it is making me wonder if WE should have done a better job negotiating OUR deal.” CAPS mine for emphasis. Interesting statement. Did libraries even have input into this deal? So WE and OUR seems like odd choice of words. Seems to be an Overdrive and an Amazon deal. It sounds alot like what happened with HarperCollins “deal” where libraries did not have input. These things just get announced and we don’t really have any choice but to roll. In this deal libraries own nothing and by the grace of the Amazon god Bezos we have received an enormous “free” gift. And as they say, “The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away.” Yes, what wiil it cost in the future. Nobody, especially Amazon, gives away anything without getting some big reward in the end. You are right Tim Amazon things long and hard about their strategies, they do not stumble and fumble. I think libraries should be worried.
[...] Library eBooks Coming Soon to Amazon Kindle! But At What Cost? [...]
Their are a lot of caveats for libraries in this Amazon deal and with ebooks in general. However, Bobbi is right, we could have negoitated a better deal if we would have been at the table. You generally don’t get asked to the table in a situation like this. You either set a place for yourself before the meal, or you crash the party. Libraries pay Overdrive a ton of money. Yet in the early stages of building our relationship with them did we ever consider the possibility that they would not just become a vendor, but an intermediary negoitating deals on our behalf? An intermediary that gets a cut of the deal no matter what! So yes we should have negoitated a better deal with Overdrive to ensure that when they are negoitating a deal on our behalf that our interests are represented.
[...] I have to say we got the short end of that stick my friends. I have been working an expansion of my May blog post for Library Renewal where I raised some concerns : new concerns have started to creep in as I think through the long [...]
My impression in New Zealand is that signing up with Overdrive is an experiment/pilot and assessment will be carried out after the useage figures have been collected.
i feel the alarm over Amazon having figures on borrowing could put libraries at a disadvantage – but Amazon is there as a business – not a public service – it is up to libraries to improve their service, probably by shopping around once they understand the platform business.
Also a Kindle owner will not just borrow free books from their public library – they are amongst the most affluent members of society – and will buy e-books as well.
[...] that Kindle users will soon be able to borrow e-books from their local public libraries (although there are some drawbacks). This finally puts Kindle owners on the same playing field as owners of a Nook, Sony Reader, Kobo, [...]