Apple has bombarded us with promises of their recently released Ipad as a revolutionary gadget packed full of features that we must all experience. “Ipad is the best way to experience the web”; “there is nothing like the mail app on ipad”, “Avivid LED makes viewing photos on ipad extraordinary”; “9.7 – inch high-resolution screen makes ipad perfect for watching videos” ; but more importantly is the iBooks app which allows customers to browse and shop for books. Download books and they appear on your bookshelf. “Tap the Store button and the bookshelf flips around like a secret passageway to reveal the ibook store”. Ipad website
NZ herald launched their ipad apps “NZ Herald ipad apps” as soon as ipad was released and promised readers “ You can now get the best of the Herald at
your fingertips…custom built to play to the strengths of the device you can touch, zoom, tap, pinch and dive-in to the latest news coverage, exclusive video
and engaging photo journalism”. What an irresistible piece of advertising, doesn't that make you want to have it right now! My colleague at work – a technology 'early adopter' bought his ipad the day it was released in New Zealand. He brought it to work and gave me a demo; and I must say that I like what I saw.
While e-book itself has been with us for quite some time, it is the recent advancement in reading devices like ipad that are pushing the e-book craze. Dan Costa in his article “The Kindle, Flipboard for iPad and the Connected Reader” discusses in more detail the impact of these devices on “irrevocably change [to] the act of reading”, and focuses his discussion on the comparison of these devices. Amazon's 'Kindle' ebook reader has been around before ipad and is cheaper, however the kindle's features are limited to ebook functions; this means less attraction to it than ipad - which is packed with many more features. Most people may rather buy ipad; even if their intent for purchasing ipad is not for ebooks, having the ipad means also taking advantage of the e-book features.
With the market spin on ebook, its use will definitely increase. So what role will the public libraries play in this?
According to Macmillan US CEO John Sargent in Martin Taylor's blog page “Libraries and ebook: tough issues that it’s time to debate” says that “In the past,
getting a book from libraries has had a tremendous amount of friction. You have to go to the library, maybe the book has been checked out, and you have to come back another time…with ebooks, you sit at your couch in your living room and go to the library website , see if the library has it… You get the book, read it, return it, and get another, all without paying a thing…Sounds great! This will be a great improvement to literacy, education and other cultural benefits. But wait, there maybe some implications.
The UK government for example has passed legislation that patrons of public libraries should not charge patrons for ebooks. This is no doubt a major concern
to publishers, bookseller and authors; and how about the budget strain that this sort of legislation will put on libraries as the taste and demand from
public for ebooks escalates. I find Taylor's article quite interesting as he raises very important issues on the impact of e-book on libraries and encourages
debate.
Martyn Daniels in his article "Does anyone care for impact of ebooks for free" also addresses some issues with public libraries free downloadable ebooks
service. According to this article, South Ayrshire libraries have announced the free downloads of ebooks to its members 24/7. He poses the question of “do
the publishers feel that being paid is enough and that it’s no different to physical books being sold to libraries? Do the book store believe that libraries
are no threat to their livelihood? Do authors feel that they will get adequately rewarded by library royalties and a shrinking PLR (public lending right)?”
From these arguments, there appears to be a serious need for debate over the issue of free access to e-book.
Currently, the best way to enjoy and purchase ebook content is via reading devices. You buy ebook from Apple on ipad, you buy book from Amazon on Amazon’s kindle. Will public libraries need to buy rights from say Apple and Kindle to allow public to download ebooks to their gadgets from public libraries. Are ebooks public libraries ebooks compatible with ipad? According to Dave Dickson article "EPUB, iPad and Content interoperability" "thousands of online booksellers (including Barnes & Noble) and most public libraries (including the New York Public Library) are unreadable of ipad".
My colleague who game me a demo of ipad's ibooks explained that: Apple downloads of e-books is limited, currently provides some free 'stuff' but of old books like "Winnie the pooh"; and that it might be a while until Apple starts doing deals with publishers and book vendors. However, he further explained that, ebooks from internet sites, libraries and Goodreader apps in PDF format and in a reasonable font size could be read on ipad even though not of the same quality as 'ibook' or Amazon kindle.
Dave Dickson’s blog page also mentions a recent study commissioned by the Book Industry Study Group. He said that, a major concern from consumers on e-reader experience is that “certain e-books are specific to certain e-readers…” he goes on to say that “consumers value content interoperability as a key feature of the digital reading experience, preferring to not have their content specific to one device”. There is also the inability to easily transfer content across devices.
The important questions asked in Martin Taylor article “Should libraries have ebooks? I am not sure they should”- “If a library buys an ebook, how many times can it lend this ebook and under what terms?”
Some answers to these questions - as they relate to New Zealand could be found on Public Lending Right for New Zealand Authors Act 2008 whose purpose is to "compensate New Zealand authors for the use of their books in public libraries".
Personally I think that libraries should spend money on digitising the library’s collection so it’s more readily available to everyone. Libraries of the future should have no queues, no holds, no walls, no boundaries. Printed books should move into archives.
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