The Museum and Library Services Act Has Passed!

From our Friends at ALA Washington Office, some good news:

“Congress has passed S. 3530, the Museum and Library Services Act (MLSA) sponsored by Senator Jack Reed (D-RI)! We are so proud and thrilled to see one of ALA's top priorities - reauthorizing the Institute of Museum and Library Services - cross the finish line tonight, capping two years of intensive efforts by ALA members and library advocates.

Please take a moment to thank your representative and senators for renewing their commitment to America's libraries by passing this important bill.

ALA advocates, we applaud your steadfast work to move MLSA forward and to send a strong message to Congress that libraries and the vital services they provide have longstanding value in every community across the country. Thank you for everything you do!”

SimplyE adds Audiobook Capability

SimplyE, the “one app to rule them all,” has added digital audiobook capability. Bibliotheca Cloud Library titles can now be enjoyed through the app. Baker & Taylor Axis 360 and RB Digital titles will follow soon, with OverDrive perhaps joining eventually. This format enhances the e-book availability from eight vendors. The goal is to have as many content sources as possible in one place, branded for the owning library, allowing library users an easier and less confusing experience, ensuring that they do not have to visit many different apps or websites to get all of a library’s digital content. Another milestone in the development of an an app that promises to revolutionize library digital use!

News Coverage of High E-book Prices

Our friends at the Canadian Urban Library Council (CULC) are again working to raise awareness of the high cost of e-books from the Big 5 in Canada and of the difficulty in accessing some audiobook content at all.

Although various e-book licensing models come in for appropriate criticism, cost remains a barrier to access: “the problem isn't necessarily the model but the price, she said. While a physical book might cost $22, it can cost the library $100 for a copy of the electronic version.

‘We face excessively high prices and restrictive models for these ebooks,’ she said.

The price continues to rise when libraries purchase multiple copies of an ebook -- and multiple forms of the same book, including hard and soft covers and audiobooks -- in an effort to shorten waitlists.

‘It's not a sustainable model. We're having trouble making sure we have all the content for our customers that they want to see,’ Day said.”

ReadersFirst happily draws attention to CULC’s concerns. These concerns are not new: RF has previously referred visitors to http://www.fairpricingforlibraries.org/. The failure of publishers to meet libraries continues to hinder readers from accessing valuable content.

Caveat Emptor--RBDigital

In October, RBDigital turned on a feature that allows patrons to choose to download new magazine issues automatically.  Sounds good, right?  They can decide they simply want to see their favorite.  There are, however, two concerns with the practice.

One: RBDigital apparently didn’t tell all their customers the feature was being turned on. If you’ve seen a sudden and unexplained uptick in check-outs, here’s a likely reason

Two: as one of our Canadian colleagues found out, it can cause libraries to run rapidly through some available downloads on some popular titles: “We are running out of circs for our most popular titles and customers are unable to download, e.g. we’re out of circs for the Economist for December, our most popular and expensive title. Very annoyed customers! They didn’t tell us that they had added this choice (we would have said no) and of course people check it. To meet demand, we have 38 subscriptions to the Economist, which cost us $22K a year!”

It is possible to turn off the feature. In the Admin settings, there is a feature called Auto-checkout control.  Admins find it under “Services Subscriptions, Magazines,”  towards the bottom of the screen. Change “Auto-checkout Magazines” to “Disabled.”

 Of course, taking away a feature once it is offered can be unpopular, but not so unpopular as customers expecting to get content and not being able to within a library’s budget.

If RBdigital did not tell you about this change, they should have.

RBDigital, I hope you made every effort to communicate this change beforehand. Several libraries, however, have said it is news to them. Implementing changes that might affect our materials budgets without telling us is seriously uncool!

Advocacy Alert: Take action today to oppose a transfer of authority from the Librarian of Congress to the President

From our friends at the ALA Washington Office:

With fewer than two weeks left in this congressional session, we face serious threats on the U.S. Copyright Office and Library of Congress.

On Wednesday, December 12, the Register of Copyrights Selection and Accountability Act (S. 1010), a Senate companion to the already-passed House bill (H.R. 1695) will be voted on by the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, in spite of strong opposition by ALA and others in the library community. There is intense industry pressure to pass this legislation in the lame duck session, even though this would take authority away Dr. Hayden and give it to the President.

ALA strongly opposes this bill. We urge you to contact your U.S. Senators now to express your personal opposition and ask them to vote against it.

We must keep Congress from undermining Dr. Hayden and her leadership. Make your voice heard for the Library of Congress and libraries everywhere--for Dr. Hayden, a past-president of ALA.

Send an Email Now

First Research Report from the Panorama Project

The Panorama Project is trying to determine, in part, the impact of library e-book use on sales. The project has completed its first report, on an OverDrive Big Library Read. The results suggest that, at least for a targeted e-book event, libraries do call attention to and foster sales of books, benefiting authors and publishers.

RF looks forward to other reports on more typical library e-book scenarios. Let’s see if the link between library use and discovery/purchase of titles, which libraries have long argued anecdotally, can be further verified.

“I'm delighted to announce that the Panorama Project has released its first research report. The project’s Community Reading Event Impact Report presents findings on the impact of a recent OverDrive Big Library Read (BLR) community reading campaign. First-time author Jennifer McGaha’s Flat Broke With Two Goats (Sourcebooks, 2018) was selected for the April 2018 public library ebook club event. The data analyzed by the project shows that the selection and promotion of the title for the April 2–16, 2018 event aligns with significant increases in associated social media activity and retail print/ebook sales.

Discovery Impact from the Campaign

• 5.6 million page views globally of the ebook title details page in public library digital catalogs.

• An increase in title’s Amazon Kindle sales rank—from below 200,000 prior to the library ebook club campaign to 7,833 at the close of the event.

Brand Development Impact from the Campaign

• Over 13,000 Goodreads additions for the title during the campaign.

• 400+ comments from readers, librarians, the author, and OverDrive forum moderator on the OverDrive moderated title discussion board.

• 500+ mentions from libraries and readers on social media sites using #BigLibraryRead.

Retail Sales Impact from the Campaign

• 818% growth in ebook sales from March to April, 2018.

• 201% growth in print sales from March to April, 2018.

• Sustained retail sales above pre-campaign (January–March 2018) volumes:

  • April–June 2018 ebook sales continued at 720% above pre-campaign volumes.

  • April–June 2018 print sales continued at 38% percent above pre-campaign volumes.

Data was aggregated from a number of sources to obtain the most holistic view possible of all library and retail sales activity (print and ebook) across multiple channels. The data sources include U.S. retail data from The NPD Group’s DecisionKey® retail book sales tracking service (formerly Bookscan™), U.S. public library ebook circulation data provided by OverDrive, and U.S. sales and marketing data from the publisher. In addition to sales data we have aggregated and incorporated promotional activities known to have been undertaken independently by OverDrive and Sourcebooks.

This is the first of several library impact research projects that we are working on. The report demonstrates how we are using library and retail data to develop a better understanding of the impact of the country’s public libraries on book discovery, author/brand development, and retail sales. We believe that the publication of this first report will serve as a catalyst for others in the publishing community to engage with the project. We are grateful for the contributions and support of Sourcebooks and the members of our Advisory Council—all of whom have provided insightful and helpful feedback.

View/Download the Report

View/Download the Media Alert

Thank you for your support!

Best wishes,

Cliff

Cliff Guren

Panorama Project Lead”

ALA Midwinter ReadersFirst Session

Just before the Consortial EBook Interest Group meeting, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in the same room (Hyatt Regency Seattle in the Junior Ballroom East), on Friday, January 25, ReadersFirst will be holding a digital content interest session. You DON’T have to be a Readers First member to attend.

We will be taking about a study we hope to have completed on eBook availability, licensing models, and cost in Canada and the USA. We’ll discuss some recent digital content developments. We welcome all comments about what is happening at your entity (library, non-profit, distributor, or publishing house). No need for a formal presentation: just tell us what you are seeing, for good or not so good, and what you’d like to see in library digital content. We will have a special guest: Andrew Albanese from Publishers Weekly, who digs deep into all matters library e-book, will talk about where the library e-book market is: the good, the bad, and the foot-dragging.

It will all be informal conversation in which we talk about where library digital content is and where we’d like it to go.

IN the morning, in the same room, there will be a SimplyE interest section. Friday the 25th will be library digital content day in Seattle!

Please consider attending!

PRH Prices Are Being Adjusted, But . . .

Some RF member libraries are reporting that Penguin Random House is indeed adjusting library e-book prices.

For example:

·Titles in the Cold Fury Hockey series went from $14.97 to $55 to the current $10.  Thank goodness as this series is very popular with our customers.

Crazy Rich Asians went from $48 to $55 to the current $45.  It’s interesting, however, that China Rich Girlfriend and Rich People Problems are now $50, not $45. It will be interesting to see if they eventually normalize at the lower price.

In the Loveswept imprint, all but a handful (that aren’t box sets) are now $10, down from $14.97. That’s a drop on around 650 titles.

The price drop is welcome, but the move to a two-year metered model still poses challenges for libraries. For example, one library buyer points out the following: “Today I have to buy 11 more A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult this week (on top of the 32 we’ve already purchased) to reach our holds ratio. Each copy is $55, but in 24 months we won’t have a single one of them in our collection. Picoult is a perennial favorite, and I will no doubt be purchasing this title for years to come if Metered Access is the only lending model available.”

Adds another, “Our consortium budget can no way absorb having to re-buy this volume of titles.”

Having to repurchase every two years will likely decrease the variety and depth of digital titles that libraries can offer, with either high-demand titles displacing everything else or (and?) librarians facing patrons’ frustrated cry of “what I want is never available.”

PRH, we appreciate you engaging in a conversation with libraries. Please keep the door open. What we need, again, is OPTIONS! Work with us. Pilot at least a perpetual one user/one copy and a metered 52 circ model on all titles. We can talk price options. If we can use PRH efficiently, libraries will buy more from you. Our collections, and your bottom line, will benefit.

Take Action For Libraries

From our friends at the ALA Washington Office:

Advocacy Alert: Museum and Library Services Act

We need you to take action today!
 

On the heels of our amazing funding news last week, the Museum and Library Services Act - legislation to reauthorize the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) - was introduced in both the Senate (S.3530) and House (H.R.6988) this past Friday with strong leadership and bipartisan support.

ALA President Loida Garcia-Febo praised the new legislation: "ALA appreciates the many ways these two bills build on the successes of previous reauthorizations of the IMLS. We applaud all of the hard work to ensure S. 3530 and H.R. 6988 equitably distribute Library Services and Technology Act funds to large and small states, expands eligibility for tribal libraries, supports disaster readiness, and reinforces ALA's message that strong communities need strong libraries."

With few working days available to Congress to consider legislation, only bills with bipartisan support are likely to pass. ALA's goal now is to have Congress take up S.3530 and H.R.6988 as soon as possible.
 

If both bills are passed, it will deliver a strong message from Congress that funding for federal library programs is a priority for them. Please email your Senators and email your Representative today and urge them to cosponsor the Museum and Library Services Act.

Edited: Et tu, PRH? Maybe not. Let’s find out more

Is this the other shoe dropping? Update: maybe not. It looks as if Penguin Random House is going to drop prices on some “top tier” authors from $65 to $55, but raise prices on many others.

OverDrive sent out this notice to its clients.

RF will post more as we learn about this possible unwelcome change. For now, we don’t know if many prices will in fact be raised. Expect a follow-up post if we find out.

Update: This matter is more complicated than it might seem at first sight. A closer look at some upcoming PRH pricing suggests that while adjustments are going on, a majority of titles are not going up in price. Some titles are being increased but they are not necessarily titles (omnibus titles, some classics like those in Everyman’s Library) that libraries buy much of. Other adjustments are being made based on BISAC subject headings, with some titles moving from a children’s or young adult or adult classification to a different one. Overall, some percentage of titles will increase, but a far larger percentage is going to decrease. Many titles of primary interest to libraries are being adjusted down since the initial list was released. PRH is also planning to offer a pricing sale with discounts on library e-books soon, though apparently not every library vendor always offers discounts when they appear. ReadersFirst suggests a “wait and see” before reacting strongly to get a better idea of exactly what all the price changes are going to be and what PRH will do in response to any library concerns. An immediate purchase of titles that “are expected” to increase may not be in a library’s best interest, in spite of some recommendations.

 Dear Partner,

We received additional information about the price changes that will take effect October 1, 2018 for the Penguin Random House ebook catalog. In general, the pricing for ebooks will be as follows:

• Adult titles: $55.00/$57.00 USD

• Young Adult titles: $45.00/$47.00 USD

• Children's titles: $35.00/$37.00 USD

There are exceptions to these price points that may vary by audience level. Please note, the new pricing results in both price decreases as well as increases from the current pricing across the catalog, which vary on a title by title basis.

We reviewed the upcoming price changes and created a list for you in OverDrive Marketplace that include ebooks we expect will have a price increase after October 1, 2018. We recommend you take advantage of the cost savings by purchasing now, as prices will be increasing on these titles on October 1. The pricing is subject to change.

If you have any questions, please contact your Account Manager.

Thank you,

OverDrive