1. NHS Scotland Knowledge Services
ebook Summit
Wednesday 24th September 2014

2. UK book sales market 2013
The invoiced value of all UK book sales was £3.389m in 2013.
Digital sales accounted for only 15% of this but the annual trend is rising.
Digital formats (encompassing both ebooks and online subscriptions) accounted for 20% of the total invoiced value of sales of academic/professional books in 2013.
The Science, Technical & Medical (STM) sector saw a 1% increase in digital sales.
Between 2009 and 2013, the value of digital sales increased from 6% to 17% in STM.
Source: The PA Statistics Yearbook 2013
Digital is overall still a small part of the market but it is growing and has been for several years now.

3. STM book sales 2009-2013 (£m) Physical Digital Total 2009 282 17 299

4. In summary Digital is increasing, print is not.
All sectors show an upward trend in digital sales, including ebooks, but there is evidence of a slowing down of the increase.
ebooks are here to stay.
But so are print books. Some forms of books will go completely, some will always be around. Different people will find different ways of reading and I think that, for the foreseeable future, ebooks are simply part of the content ecosystem. That said, no-one wants to be left behind, publishers, libraries, booksellers

5. ebook lending in public libraries
Between 70 and 80% of public libraries in the UK offer ebooks…but availability of titles is an issue.
OverDrive is the most popular digital supplier (aggregator) serving about half of the public libraries in the UK. It offers a central catalogue of around one million books, audio books and videos.
Source: (accessed 20/9/2014)
Acc to Nick Stopforth, head of Digital at the Society of Chief Librarians
Libraries simply choose what they want.
Vendors such as Dawson (Dawsonera) and Coutts (MyiLibrary) sell ebooks on behalf of
publishers. The vendor’s role is to provide sales support, and once the purchase is completed
(or the subscription arranged) access to the ebook itself is provided via the publisher’s website.
Vendors typically offer content from a range of different publishers.
Aggregators, such as EBSCOhost, Credo, Bloomsbury, EBL (EBook Library), ebrary, NetLibrary
and OverDrive, supply content from a range of different publishers. Unlike vendors who sell
content on behalf of publishers, aggregators license content from them and sell directly to
libraries, hosting the ebooks on their own platform rather than the publisher’s website.

6. ebook lending in public libraries
OverDrive operates two models:
One person, one book at a time.
Simultaneous use for unlimited readers over a set period.
OverDrive ebooks are in EPUB format which doesn’t work on Kindles. They can, however, be downloaded to mobiles and tablets using OverDrive apps.
Source: (accessed 20/9/2014)
The more flexible the option the more expensive it will be
Therefore the most popular reading device can’t be used to access library ebooks.

7. Publishers and ebook lending
Major publishers like Random House, Bloomsbury and HarperCollins do allow public libraries access to their full ebook offering. Several don’t: Penguin withdrew its agreement with OverDrive in 2012.
The HarperCollins model allows the book to be ‘loaned’ 26 times before it has to be paid for again.
Publishers want to lend. But the relationship between them and PLs has been fraught for the last three or so years, chiefly because pubs are anxious about protecting their IP and income. But publishers do want to provide access to their books.
The HC model was greeted with horror but clearly there has to be some way of getting income.

8. Publishers’ concerns
Publishers worry about the potential risk that libraries will simply buy one e-book which will be loaned to multiple readers, in multiple locations, and in multiple numbers.
Therefore they worry that uncurbed, a reader with a library card need never buy a book again.
‘Friction’ v. ease of access
Remote lending v. library visits
Source: (accessed 20/9/2014)
Some publishers want ebooks to be accessed at libraries only. Downloaded and taken away, but only at the PL.
And yet, remote lending is a great thing for public consumption of ebooks, enabling house-bound and elderly people to access books.

9. The Sieghart Report (March 2013)
William Sieghart was commissioned to conduct ‘An Independent Review of e-lending in Public Libraries in England’ and reported in March 2013.
Recommendations:-
ebooks should be free
They should be available to access remotely
One reader, one book at a time
ebooks should ‘deteriorate’ thus forcing repurchase
Source: DCMS ‘An Independent Review of e-lending in Public Libraries in England’ by William Sieghart
So this is pretty much like the print-lending model with the exception of remote access (mobile libraries!)
The last two cancel ut the core benefits of ebooks

10. An alternative model (Publishers Association 2010)
Payment for the service is made on the basis of the population size and is on a sliding scale depending on the number of potential users (i.e. those who live within the area and are eligible to hold library cards).
Publishers decide the size of catalogue available.
The service operates through a remote viewing platform, where content is held securely on the cloud and is viewed but not downloaded. Users can log on to the platform using any device with an internet connection.
Source: The PA ‘E-book lending in public libraries’
Further: Publishers are able to help libraries manage limited budgets by offering them either the purchase of a number of unique accesses to a book, or the purchase of an annual right to a number of simultaneous accesses.
Time limits on viewing content could be removed or retained depending on the licensing terms.

11. ebook lending in public libraries
Some anecdotal information from Stirling Council Libraries:-
5,228 visits last year and looking at an increase this year.
Most borrowed: fiction 77%; biography 6%.
Ebooks are being actively promoted to schools, resulting in an increase of around 6% of children's books.
Most people borrow between 3.00pm and 11.00pm with the peak at 10.00pm.
Clearly there is a public appetite for remote lending

12. Ebook purchasing models in higher education
Libraries are buying more ebooks, often along with the print edition (bundling).
Outright purchase, individually or as a bundle. In theory this means indefinite access.
Subscription: access is granted for a specific period.
Credits: Ebooks are purchased with a number of credits and each use (download or online) deducts a set amount of these credits. Once the credits run down to zero the library has to purchase another copy (Dawsonera).
Short-term rental (similar to interlibrary loan)
Source: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Ebook Acquisition and Lending Briefing, July 2013

13. ebooks in higher education
The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL) Annual Library Statistics, :
UK university libraries offered access to more than 21 million ebooks
More than 17 million ebooks were purchased
1,089 e-book databases were purchased
Expenditure on ebooks was £12.7m
In general libraries spend significantly more on online resources and subscription services like databases than print and ebooks.
Source: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Ebook Acquisition and Lending Briefing, July 2013
The Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL)

14. ebooks in higher education
Ebrary global ebook survey, 2011, key findings
Ebook usage is on a par with print books, with almost equal numbers of students using each type.
72% of students would use ebooks if there were more titles in their subject area.
60% of students would use ebooks if there were less restrictions on printing & copying.
85% of students want to download to a PC.
Source: Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. Ebook Acquisition and Lending Briefing, July 2013

15. Ebooks. And...?
‘Given the very nature of the digital marketplace and the medium, it is not just ebooks that the market consumes. Opportunities exist not only in creating ebook collections, bookshelves and the like, but in delivering learning content in a far more interactive and dynamic manner.’
Source: The PA Statistics Yearbook 2013
Publishers are on the move to look for more interesting ways of delivering and monetising content.

16. NHS Scotland Knowledge Services
ebook Summit
Wednesday 24th September 2014