Who loves e-books? Presentation at the Gothenburg Book Fair
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A presentation by the E-books Research Group of the Universities of Gothenburg and Borås. First, Annika Bergström reports on the SOM survey, then Tom Wilson draws out some common issues from surveys of public libraries, academic libraries and publishers.
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Who loves e-books? Presentation at the Gothenburg Book Fair
- 1. VEM ÄLSKAR E-BOKEN – OCH VEM LÄSER DEN? Annika Bergström Lars Höglund Göteborgs universitet Elena Maceviciute Tom Wilson Högskolan i Borås Bok & Bibliotek 2015
- 2. E-bokens framväxt i ett litet språkområde: Media, teknologi och effekter i det digitala samhället. . Författare BokhandelFörlag Bibliotek Läsare
- 3. Utlån av e-böcker i svenska folkbibliotek 2000-2014 (antal lån) 61283 97652 135560 163293 217638 183000 276112 466235 650980 1073169 1524234 1600910 0 200000 400000 600000 800000 1000000 1200000 1400000 1600000 1800000 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Källa: Kungl. biblioteket, folkbiblioteksstatistik, juni 2015.
- 4. Bokläsning, läsning av e-böcker och tillgång till surfplatta samt användning av bibliotekstjänster via internet 1995-2014 (procent) 49 58 86 86 18 26 9 11 18 2 50 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 Läst bok de senaste 12 månaderna Läst bok ngn gång/ månad eller oftare Använt bibliotekstjänster via internet senaste 12 mån. Läst e-bok senaste 12 mån Tillgång till surfplatta Källa: De nationella SOM-undersökningarna 1995-2015.
- 5. Läst skönlitterär bok och fackbok som e-bok 2012-2014 (procent) 6.3 7.9 13.0 8.6 10.6 18.4 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 1 2 3 Läst någon typ av e-bok 2012 2013 20 14 Skön Fack- Skön- Fack- Skön Skön- Fack- litt litt. litt. litt. litt. litt. Källa: De nationella SOM-undersökningarna 2012-2014.
- 6. Läsning av e-böcker i olika grupper de senaste 12 månaderna (procent) 17 20 36 23 14 10 6 13 26 26 24 13 4 14 24 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Källa: Den nationella SOM-undersökningen 2014.
- 7. Attityder till e-böcker (procent 8-10, skala 0-10) Andel 8-10 E-böcker kan aldrig ersätta känslan av att bläddra i en tryckt bok 58 Möjligheten att läsa e-böcker innebär att jag köper/lånar färre tryckta böcker 24 Att läsa e-böcker är ännu så länge allt för komplicerat 29 E-boksformatet lämpar sig bäst för kortare böcker 31 Källa: Den nationella SOM-undersökningen 2013.
- 8. Funktioner hos tryckta böcker och e-böcker (procent och differens) Vilken slags bok passar bäst i följande sammanhang: Tryckt bok passar bäst E-bok passar bäst Ingen upp- fattning Differens mellan tryckt bok och e-bok Att läsa för barn 82 1 17 +81 Att läsa i sängen 74 6 20 +68 Att dela med andra 46 15 39 +31 Att läsa vid pendling eller resa 47 23 30 +24 När man vill ha ett stort utbud att välja från 37 22 41 +15 Att få ta på snabbt 27 34 39 -7 Källa: Den nationella SOM-undersökningen 2014.
- 9. Läsning av e-böcker och tryckta böcker beroende på preferenser av tryckta respektive e-böcker, 2014 (procent) 67 57 41 6 16 21 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 E-book preferred in 0-1 cases E-book preferred in 2-3 cases E-book preferred in 4-6 cases Källa: Den nationella SOM-undersökningen 2014.
- 10. E-bokens framväxt i ett litet språkområde: Media, teknologi och effekter i det digitala samhället. . Författare BokhandelFörlag Bibliotek Läsare
- 11. Publishers and libraries • Publishers’ aims – Market growth – Increase in market share – Profit maximisation – Strong author list – Effective distribution network – Quality control • Libraries’ aims – Community service – Reading promotion – Education support – Financial efficiency – Engagement with community groups – Extending access
- 12. Demand •The demand for e-books is low among book buyers and library users comparing with the demand for print books (statistics show only a very small ratio of e-book sales or loans) •Demand is growing quite rapidly and has to be taken into account by publishers and libraries:
- 13. Cost • The higher rate of VAT drives the prices of e-books up lowering the sales • Prices of e-books for libraries are higher than those for print books • Public libraries have problems with budgeting, especially if all categories of books (based on loan price) are made available to users • Academic libraries make extra investments in competence and technology to provide access
- 15. Limitations • Publishers: limited by market size; by uncertain demand from public; by introduction of new technology • Libraries: limited by what publishers choose to offer and pricing policies, to a greater extent than in the case of printed books; limited by their budget capacity; limited by the delivery platforms and formats.
- 16. Case study library Change as a result of removing cost limits on library loans Month Total loans of titles % increase Total cost SEK % increase December 2014 512 - 13,093 - January 2015 1 574 207% 40,303 208% February 2015 1 670 6% 48,109 19% March 2015 2 102 26% 55,799 16%
- 17. Fears • Publishers fear the loss of sales and profits through making e-books available in libraries or through piracy (and to some extent, self-publishing) • Libraries fear the loss of control over their collections and as a result the disruption of their ability to perform their key functions • Easy and cheap access to e-books in other languages through international providers can diminish future demand to Swedish language literature
- 18. Expectations • Academic libraries - e-books will be an increasing proportion of their book-stocks • Public libraries - continuing uncertainty over budgeting and continued slow increase in demand • Publishers - relatively slow increase in the proportion of e-books sold and continuing issues over appropriate pricing
- 19. Conclusion Elsewhere, we’ve described the rise of the e-book as a ‘disruptive’ technology and this does seem to be the case for both publishers and libraries. Both kinds of organization are grappling with how best to cope with the new technology in a way that, for one, will improve the bottom line, and, for the other, improve service to their users.
- 20. Mer information: Projectebooks.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/current-activity Frågor? Välkomna till Bibliotekshögskolans monter B06:71 vid Forskartorget kl. 14.35-14.55
Editor's Notes
- We take another look at Annika’s first slide, moving on from the readers who love e-books, to the publishers and libraries that produce and distribute them, but also love them.
- I think we can probably all agree that there is a certain amount of tension between libraries and publishers in relation to e-books. And this is not surprising, given the different aims of the two kinds of organizations. Both, of course, are significant in relation to the cultural life of a country and without the publisher taking risks in deciding which books are going to deliver profit, the libraries would have no books to buy and lend. Beyond this, however, the day-to-day focus of interest is different: libraries are about public service while, whatever the cultural function of the publisher, these are commercial agencies concern with matters such profit maximisation. In our research we identify a number of factors that affect both publishers and libraries in trying to cope with this new phenomenon - the e-book, about which there is a great deal of hype, expectation and misinformation. The first factor we’d like to look at is DEMAND
- - and we see problems immediately. The present demand for e-books, both to buy and to borrow, is low, accounting for about 1-2% of sales and 2-3% of borrowing from public libraries. Borrowing from public libraries has been growing rapidly, but from a very low base. The situation in academic libraries is rather different - overall, they now spend more on access to electronic information resources, including e-books, than they spend on printed materials. However, most of this material is in English and is from the major global publishing houses such as Elsevier – the lack of Swedish language e-books is a subject of concern for some, especially specialised högskolan.
- A second major factor is the COST of e-books. Specifically, the higher MOMS rate for e-books compared with printed books drives up the price of e-books and tends to lower sales. It is not without significance that in the USA and the UK, where Amazon has the major share of the e-book market, its ability to drive down prices, its policy of providing occasional free access to books and its 75% or more reduction in prices in frequent ‘special offers’ , must have been a major factor in driving up the demand for e-books to more than 20% of sales. We do not know to what extent Swedish readers are taking advantage of these prices. Public libraries have problems with budgeting, especially if all categories of books (based on loan price) are made available to users. The problem for libraries lies in estimating the demand for new titles and, given the relatively low rate of e-book borrowing, deciding on the choice between e-book and printed book. Academic libraries get most of their e-books from subscription services run by international providers like EBSCO; in general, however, they would prefer to buy only what they needed, but are restricted from doing so because an e-book may cost five or six times more than the same printed book. We understand why this is the case: printed books do not last for ever and those in demand will last only a short time before needing to be replaced and libraries, both academic and public, often buy multiple copies of a printed book, whereas they only need to give access to a single e-book (although limits may be set for academic libraries). Thus, there’s still a tension here and how it may eventually be resolved is not clear.
- £0.99 = 12.8 SEK £1.99 = 27.72SEK
- We refer in our project to Sweden as a “small language market” – the 9.5 million people, or thereabouts, constitute a tiny market when compared with, say, the Spanish market, with 399 million speakers – three times as many ebooks are published in Spain as in Sweden. The low overall demand for Swedish e-books presents problems to publishers because they have to ask whether or not it is worth investing in the technology to deliver e-books (or worth outsourcing that function), if demand remains low. What would be the return on investment for them? For libraries, the way e-books are offered to them presents problems, since they do not own what they buy, but simply license access, for a fee - and the growing, but uncertain demand, means that setting a budget is problematical - a number of libraries have reported needing to close access to e-books part way through the year because the budget for that purpose has been spent. The new, variable rate for loans results in further decisions to limit costs by preventing access to the higher-priced, 70SEK per loan, books, which goes against the library ethos of providing access to everything. The libraries also have no real choice about which system to adopt, as both eLib and Atingo are now owned by the same company, Axiell and competition is non-existent.
- The table in this slide shows data from one library only, reflecting what happened when a grant from the local authority enabled the library to remove the bar on access to the highest priced books. In December 2014, 512 e-books were borrowed under the old constraints at a total cost of 13,093 Kroner: when the bar was removed, the following month, there was an immediate 207% increase in loans at a total cost of 40,303 Kroner, with smaller increases thereafter. Contrary to what one might expect, the increase in demand was not only for the higher-priced loans, but was spread across the price categories, including a significant increase in the lowest priced category. It seems that the publicity surrounding the initiative may have pulled in people who had not previously borrowed e-books. It would be interesting to know how the approximately 150,000 SEK earned by the lending of e-books for the four months shown compares with the income from printed book sales in the same city.
- A common phenomenon across both libraries and publishers is FEAR: Publishers fear the loss of sales and profits through making e-books available in libraries or through piracy (and, to some extent, self-publishing) – although the data on the previous slide might present some antidote to that fear Libraries fear the loss of control over their collections and as a result the disruption of their ability to perform their key functions Easy and cheap access to e-books in other languages through international providers can diminish future demand for Swedish language literature. The phenomenon of readers, especially younger readers, switching to reading in English has already been noted by one of our Eastern European colleagues.
- Expectations are likely to vary according to the ‘player’ in the game Academic libraries expect e-books to be an increasing proportion of their book-stocks Public libraries expect continuing uncertainty over budgeting and continued slow increase in demand Publishers? We’re uncertain about their expectations, but, they think also of a relatively slow increase in the proportion of e-books sold and continuing issues over appropriate pricing Readers, of course, hope for, if not expect, lower prices for e-books than for printed books, and this may happen if demand across Europe for the same MOMS/VAT rate for e-books and printed books brings about changes.
- Elsewhere, we’ve described the rise of the e-book as a ‘disruptive’ technology and this does seem to be the case for both publishers and libraries. Both kinds of organization are grappling with how best to cope with the new technology in a way that, for one, will improve the bottom line, and, for the other, improve service to their users.