Steph Duncan from Bloomsbury (publishers). Public Library online project/initiative motivated when the Wirrall libraries were threatened with closure.
Believe that libraries are essential for a literate society. Also enlightened self-interest – libraries help create book readers, book readers are book buyers.
Libraries cater to all and provide a means for people to discovery new things – books or formats, and making books available online increases their discoverability.
Stephanie runs down some Reading Agency Library usage stats 09-10 – shows how well used UK libraries are, and how many books are both borrowed and bought – and situation reflected in other countries – Australia and US.
Publishers may be wary of getting into ‘ebook lending’ – worried that will stop people buying books. But historical stats suggest borrowing books doesn’t decrease purchasing books.
Library lending models:
Download (e.g. Overdrive) – can lend 1 copy at a time to one person – kind of a physical equivalent
Streaming model – that public library online promotes – online access to content, no download, no offline access. Concurrent user and/or site license, DRM to suppress or all copy/paste/print/share
Patron Driven Acquisition – ful catalogue available – licensor paid on usage
All modles rely on robust, secure geographical membership – revenue model doesn’t work if you don’t have some controls
OverDrive great example of how libraries help discoverability – lots of stats showing success
Public Library online – onlines access model – immediate access to a lona experience; shared reading experiences – reading groups; Community reading; aim to drive sales through local bookshops.
Model is sell ‘shelves’ (collections) of content – at £100 (or 100 euros) per 100,000 people with access to shelf.
Access controlled by IP range (in library) and membership number (for remote access).
Looking for library/publisher partnership opportunities – author events programme (and Skype based author events); use of social media etc.
Public library online – built on goal shared by publishers and libraries to support reading and literacy through public libraries
Aim to be affordable to libraries, but revenue generating. Subscription model means there is annual income. Some authors making more through this library programme than from deep list paperback.