An open letter

October 6, 2011
Online world

Dear Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Harper Collins, Ebrary, EBSCO, and any other publisher/vendor dealing in ebooks (which is probably a good number of y'all),

I'm sure by now you all are tired of hearing from libraries and librarians about ebooks.  I mean I don't even really need to list what's been said about y'all do I?  But I want to take a bit of a different tact so please do keep reading.

First of all let's just go ahead and agree that both sides--publishers/vendors and libraries/librarians--need to work together on this, because neither of us can live without the other.  And yes I said that you need us.  Because let's go ahead and be honest when someone gets confused about how their ereader works, how to get library ebooks on it, how to use the thing...who do they really come to?  That's right, they very often come and visit their local library.  They know (or figure) that we should know how the thing works and also be able to recommend more great books to them.  And where would these folks find out about more books without us?  But we need y'all as well.  Ebooks, whether people like it or not, are a big part of the future of library world and y'all make them.  So we need to work together on this.

So what now?  Well how about we come up with a couple of compromises for both sides here.

I'll start with the library side first.
1)Getting paid and how often:
OK I'll admit HarperCollins had a good point a while back about ebooks not wearing out like regular books and the desire to get paid again, just as if a replacement copy had been ordered.  I'll also state that the checkout limitation was completely and utterly ludicrous.  So why not come up with something different?

How about an annual charge for the books.  And no I don't mean the full cost or limitations on how many times it can be checked out.  Let's just talk strictly about books that are in the $8-$25 range, which are popular books, best sellers, stuff that a large number of people are likely to read.  What about an annual fee (after the first year) per book of .50-$2.00 depending upon the retail price of the book?  That way a library has it for a year, they get a chance to look at the circulation of it and decide whether or not they want to keep it, kinda of like we do now.  If they do keep it they pay a small charge and it goes to you.

Now granted we get a lot of things through packages through vendors so things might need to change there as well (with vendors offering the chance to switch out books perhaps,) but that can be a conversation down the line.

2) Data
Let's just go ahead and be honest we all know that you collect data (some of you a bit more than others.)  And libraries are loathe to get up lots of data, because we try to protect our patrons.  But what if we compromise a bit? Let's strip out the patron name and the street address out of the data.  That way you can't associate it with one person and if the government decides to go crazy, you don't have that information to give them.  You still get some info that's useful to you and we make sure that we continue to protect our patrons privacy.

What you need to change:
1) Format, and this is the big one:
This idea that you'll only provide ebooks in one format or your ebook reader will only read one format it's ludicrous.  Y'all are acting like this is the battle between Beta player and VHS instead of what it really is, a battle between Sony and Samsung players.

Look the format is already out there, epub, just go ahead and use it.  Let people read their books on whatever device they have and not trying to force them into having only your device and no other.  DVD's companies don't do this.  I mean seriously can you imagine the chaos if you had to have 10 different DVD players to enjoy your favorite movie?

I get it, really I do.  You want to get people to buy your device.  But why not get them to buy your device based upon what it offers, not that they have to buy their books just from you.  And for their books?  Let them come to you because they know what service that you offer and the price that you can offer on ebooks.  Because come on now, they're buying their ebooks based on that anyway.

1a)Vendors and ebook readers:
This is a subset of the first conversation, but y'all seriously? You're going to let us buy ebooks and then say "sorry you can only read it on the computer."  That kind of defeats the purpose of an ebook, you know that right?  So let's start making it so that we can read ebooks on ebook readers without having to download a piece of software that doesn't work on every ebook read (looking at one of you in particular here.)  We can find a way to make it work.  You know it. I know it. So let's make it happen.

2) Talk to us:
And yes I mean really go out there and talk to us.  And no the librarians that are on you staff don't count.  Nothing against them, but once they start working for you doesn't that kinda of limit their experience with interacting with patrons on a daily basis?  Form a group.  Include people that you know are pissed off at you, but are reasonable (yes there are some out there.)  Get our input.  Include the input of your customer base.  Share it.

We can't exist in a bubble and it's time we both stopped living in aspects of them.

Now I'm only one librarian and I can't speak for them all so this is just me talking.  But let's just keep talking and see where it goes?  What do you say?

Why publishing must change...

Yep, I'm calling out the entire publishing industry.  I've been thinking about this for a while, but the HarperCollions debacle clarified some thoughts for me.  Just like the music and movie industry before it they continue to operate on 19th century practices.  And just like those two industries they keep burying their heads in the sand about changing their practices.

Sure they've jumped on the ebook wagon, but they don't really embrace it.  They make obscure restrictions, they use one format so it can't be used on all devices (and that format varies depending upon the publisher), they attach DRM to the files, and they want you to pay just as much for an ebook as they do for an actual print book...even though they have none of the printing costs behind it.  And that's supposed to be embracing?  Nope, sorry its not.

The publishing industry still has a chance to survive, but they've got to get past "this is the way we've always done it" philosophy.  It doesn't work anymore.  The average user doesn't really care about that.  And libraries and librarians are getting tired of poor decisions and poor restrictions on the part of vendors. (I mean seriously I can only Interlibrary Loan an article from a database if I print it off and then scan it and then I'm supposed to tell you who I sent it too?)  I get they want to make a profit, but there are better ways of doing it than continuing to do the same thing over and over again.

And yes I do believe librarians and libraries need to be willing to accept that we aren't going to be able to do everything that we want.  But this is something that we've got to work at together.  Perhaps a group can be formed (yes I know dangerous thing, but its a start) made up of representatives of publishers, authors, and librarians.  Something to get the dialogue started in person.  To form a framework for a future that we can all accept, even if its only partially.  Blog posts and tweets are only getting us so far and we need something more.  The time to act is now...the question is are we all willing?

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights

From LibrarianInBlack and Andy Woodsworth

(still thinking about what I want to say on this, but its worth sharing)

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users.

The eBook User’s Bill of Rights


Every eBook user should have the following rights:

• the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
• the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
• the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
• the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks

I believe in the free market of information and ideas.

I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.

I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.

I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks.  I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.

These rights are yours.  Now it is your turn to take a stand.  To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others.  Blog it, Tweet it (#ebookrights), Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.

To the extent possible under law, the person who associated CC0 with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work

HarperCollins and the ebook debacle

I'm not going to attempt to recap the ebook debacle that's been going on because of HarperCollins...Instead I'm going to point to a few great posts and then offer up my thoughts on the thing.  

• First Library Journal offers an excellent summary, and as far as I can tell the only comments directly from HarperCollins.  
• Bobbi Newman has continually updated her post to provide resources, commentary, and insights from people around the web.
• Karen Schneider makes an excellent point about the long term view of the situation.
• Toby Greenwalt offers up a letter to HarperCollins on the issue.
• The LibrarianInBlack offers up her take on the revolution that needs to come.
• And lastly (but certainly not least) Heather Braum offers up an excellent take on what reaction best serves our users.

I've seen a number of folks post that librarians, authors and readers should be outraged and make this known to the publisher.  And I agree...there's just one problem with that statement.  How many of our users understand what's going on?  How well are we communicating why these things happen with our users? 

I'm an academic librarian so my view is a bit different, but even in the academic world where we discuss budget issues and what things cost...our users still don't really understand why things work the way they do.  They get frustrated that they can't print off the entire ebook, or pages easily, or have more than one person view it at a time, or why they can't read it on the device they own.  Saying its a limit of the vendor really doesn't mean much to them.  They can't see the vendor, they don't talk to the vendor and they don't understand the discussions we have with vendors to get these rights.  All they see is us and so we take the blame.  I can only being to guess at the number of users that don't come back to us because of this.  So what do we do? 

I agree that we need to stand up to the vendors, but more than that we need to inform our users.  In terms they understand and get them behind us, to stand up with us so that we aren't fighting this battle alone.  We all need to be in this together.