No more ebook lending in Denmark

[tneken]

The biggest publishers in Denmark has withdrawn their support for e-reolen.dk the public libraries site for ebook lending. The parties could not find a business model that satisfied the publishers. Piracy was also a concern, but e-reolen hopes to minimize it by switching to a streaming based solution instead of file based. So in the future you can only lend books if you have a device with internet access and a browser, so no more ebook lending for older ebook readers.
The story in danish can be found here:
http://www.comon.dk/art/222090/forla...piratkopiering

[SeaKing]

Originally Posted by tneken

The biggest publishers in Denmark has withdrawn their support for e-reolen.dk the public libraries site for ebook lending. The parties could not find a business model that satisfied the publishers. Piracy was also a concern, but e-reolen hopes to minimize it by switching to a streaming based solution instead of file based. So in the future you can only lend books if you have a device with internet access and a browser, so no more ebook lending for older ebook readers.
The story in danish can be found here:
http://www.comon.dk/art/222090/forla...piratkopiering

Is anyone surprised?
Publishers want the reader to pay for the experience of going into a closed surveillanced room with no paper or pen or other recording devices, read the book once, and that is it.
And people with good memories should pay more!

[tneken]

Yeah. Earlier they were talking about that the libraries only could have x amount of copies of a book to lend out, like it was paper books, so that people had to wait for a copy to be returned before they could lend it. Come on: limited copies of a digital book

[Graham]

Originally Posted by tneken

Yeah. Earlier they were talking about that the libraries only could have x amount of copies of a book to lend out, like it was paper books, so that people had to wait for a copy to be returned before they could lend it. Come on: limited copies of a digital book

That is the way it works here in the UK. It seems a reasonable model to me since an unlimited license to lend would presumably cost more. So by buying a limited license to lend the libraries can balance cost against demand, resulting in a greater variety of titles on offer.

Graham

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tneken

Yeah. Earlier they were talking about that the libraries only could have x amount of copies of a book to lend out, like it was paper books, so that people had to wait for a copy to be returned before they could lend it. Come on: limited copies of a digital book

To the best of my knowledge, that's the way that ALL eBook library systems work. A library buys a licence for a specific number of simultaneous loans of a given book.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by HarryT

To the best of my knowledge, that's the way that ALL eBook library systems work. A library buys a licence for a specific number of simultaneous loans of a given book.

In Scandinavia they can lend out an unlimited amount of copies, libraries pay a price per borrowed copy, in Sweden it amounts to €2 a copy. Hence, libraries have now implemented restrictions that limits a borrower to one or two copies a week. So if you want to borrow an eBook and you haven't reached your limit you will never be rejected or put on a waiting list.

[Quexos]

We are still to start this e-book lending thing in my country and some countries are already ending it, how ironic

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by tneken

Earlier they were talking about that the libraries only could have x amount of copies of a book to lend out, like it was paper books, so that people had to wait for a copy to be returned before they could lend it.

Welcome to The Real World [tm]. That's exactly how digital lending works in most parts of the world. Is it stupid? Absolutely. Is it happening? You better believe it.

Originally Posted by Graham

It seems a reasonable model ...

I'm not sure I agree. What it really, really boils down to is trying to preserve an outdated business model ("What's a paradigm change, anyway?") instead of looking forward and embracing new possibilities.

If authors (whose interests are not necessarily congruent with publishers here), publishers and libraries sat down together, I am sure a sustainable model could be found, taking full advantage of the digital nature of ebooks.

Artificial scarcity is just, well, plain stupid.

[Yapyap]

We're finally taking baby steps towards ebook lending - I think so far there's about a handful of titles available, and it's also read-in-browser only, requiring a constant Internet connection.

I can't really see ebook lending take off like that. Certainly, people do read books on computers; some are even comfortable with it (in some cases, like for non-fiction / textbooks / reference books, it's even preferable to e-readers), but I doubt many would want to do that with the average fiction book borrowed from the library.

To me, the whole thing (considering both the lack of books and the method of lending) comes off a lot more like "okay, everyone else does library ebook lending, we need to tick that item off the list, too, but let's make it as useless and uncomfortable as possible".

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Yapyap

We're finally taking baby steps towards ebook lending - I think so far there's about a handful of titles available, and it's also read-in-browser only, requiring a constant Internet connection.

I can't really see ebook lending take off like that. Certainly, people do read books on computers; some are even comfortable with it (in some cases, like for non-fiction / textbooks / reference books, it's even preferable to e-readers), but I doubt many would want to do that with the average fiction book borrowed from the library..

I'd agree, however, some of the new e-ink readers have web browsers now and a number of people read from tablets anyway.

Sure you will burn through power faster, but most people read at home so internet reading for fiction is now much more convenient than it was.

[Yapyap]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

I'd agree, however, some of the new e-ink readers have web browsers now and a number of people read from tablets anyway.

Sure you will burn through power faster, but most people read at home so internet reading for fiction is now much more convenient than it was.

That depends entirely on the solution used / how the web reading environment is created. In our case, IE9 or the latest version of Firefox, Chrome or Safari are "strongly recommended" - I think reading on a tablet or smartphone browser may work, but eInk browsers may well have trouble. (I can't check - haven't bothered to go to town and registering in person when there is currently nothing there that I'd be interested in reading.)

And of course it's fairly useless e.g. when travelling, with the constant Internet connection requirement (can't even turn a page when you're not online). Not everyone has a 3G capable e-reader or tablet, and for tablets / smartphones, constant 3G use when travelling abroad would get awfully expensive.

I'll probably sign up eventually just to see if it might be something my mother might find worthwhile, but I'm pretty worried it's going to be computer-only, in which case e.g. reading in bed is going to be a bit of a problem.

(Also, re: "a number of people read from tablets anyway" ... in a country where most people earn ~400-600 € a month, a tablet (or a decent-sized smartphone) is still a much more costly toy than an eInk reader, even though those cost more here too than e.g. in the US. I suspect that especially among the main user groups of libraries, which here means children, middle aged women and retired people, or in other words groups with lower than average income, the numbers of tablet owners are pretty low.

Well, to be fair, the numbers of eInk reader owners are likely pretty low, too, but the whole ebook market is still in its infancy here and for anyone in that group interested in e-reading at all - which may happen, due to the ability to change font size, hold more easily than a hardback, etc - eInk readers would likely look more attractive, if only because of the price.)

[xendula]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Is anyone surprised?
Publishers want the reader to pay for the experience of going into a closed surveillanced room with no paper or pen or other recording devices, read the book once, and that is it.
And people with good memories should pay more!

After a full body search! Or preferably naked - just in case you try to smuggle a camera in.

[xendula]

Originally Posted by tneken

The biggest publishers in Denmark has withdrawn their support for e-reolen.dk the public libraries site for ebook lending. The parties could not find a business model that satisfied the publishers. Piracy was also a concern, but e-reolen hopes to minimize it by switching to a streaming based solution instead of file based. So in the future you can only lend books if you have a device with internet access and a browser, so no more ebook lending for older ebook readers.
The story in danish can be found here:
http://www.comon.dk/art/222090/forla...piratkopiering

That's really bad news and definitely a move in the wrong direction in the year 2012. I hope other European countries won't follow suit. German eborrowing is already slim as can be.
The need to have an internet connection in some countries may not be a big deal, while in others, it would exclude large parts of the population from this tax funded offering.

[owly]

Well things have been kind of hysterical in Sweden this year. After negotiations ground to a halt between the Swedish Library Association and the Swedish Publisher Association, the SLA took the slightly drastic action of publishing an ad in our largest newspaper, Dagens Nyheter http://tinaottosson.files.wordpress..../06/annons.jpg The title is " Say Hi to your new librarian" (that's supposed to be a CEO of a Publishing company) and basically is a protest against the publishers controlling which e-books are allowed to be borrowed or not. But the system has to change and soon. For example, one library I know of has to deduct more than 20 000 euros, not planned for, in this years budget alone.

[David Munch]

Originally Posted by Graham

That is the way it works here in the UK. It seems a reasonable model to me since an unlimited license to lend would presumably cost more. So by buying a limited license to lend the libraries can balance cost against demand, resulting in a greater variety of titles on offer.

Graham

Well, it shouldn't matter much if they lend out 10 books a day for 100 days, or just 1000 books in 1 day. The only thing it would change, is that the people that signed up for a book and lost interest due to the long wait for a book would get it right away, but I can't believe it would be more than a 10% increase.