Library Simplified gets ready to release a solution to increase access to ebooks from libraries in order to improve the user experience of library patrons.

1. 1
Library Simplified
Amy Calhoun – Sacramento Public Library
James English - The New York Public Library

2. 22
1. What is “Library Simplified”
2. Why are we doing this?
3. Strategy & Approach
4. What does it look like?
1. Implementation
2. Partner round table
3. Q&A
Table of Contents

3. 33
What is “Library Simplified”

4. 4
Collaborations and Partnerships
Public Libraries
New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Boston Public Library, Sacramento Public
Library, Santa Clara County Library, Alameda County Public Library, Kent District Library,
Cincinnati/Hamilton Public Library, Cuyahoga Public Library, Chattanooga Public Library
Individuals, Communities and Commercial/Non-commercial Enterprise
Librarians, developers, designers, volunteer experts, tech evangelists, open source
communities, The Readium Foundation, IDPF, standards bodies, Feedbooks, 3M, Sony
DADC, Creative Action Network
Government Institutions
The Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

5. 55
It’s a solution
Ideal process for Library
Simplified
Search for title
in catalog
Sign in to borrow
Download
eBook to device
3 Steps or less
Discover | Borrow | Read

6. 66
Why are we doing
this?

7. 77
The current market solutions are flawed…
Search for title
in catalog
Current process
Find record in
eBook format
Follow link to
eBook site
Sign in to eBook
site
Download eBook
to device
Sign in to catalog
Up to 19 steps today

8. 8
…and it shows.
157%
209%
-50%
0%
50%
100%
150%
200%
250%
Library Commercial
Library eBook adoption trails
commercial sector by 52%
eBooks Physical Books
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Good to Excellent Fair to Poor
How is your library eBook
Selection?
Good to Excellent Fair to Poor
5%
12%
95%
72%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Library Commercial
Commercial eBook vs Physical
readership 3X that of Library
eBooks Physical
We just don’t see the same level of adoption of eBooks when compared to
our physical collections and the commercial market

9. 9
What are the flaws?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Finding Book
Finding Availability
Finding Format
Placing Hold
Check Outs
Notifications
What do Patrons find Hardest or Easiest with
getting ebooks from Library?
Hardest Easiest
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Help finding eBooks
Help Borrowing an eBook
How often do patrons call seeking help
finding or borrowing eBooks
Never Seldom Often Regularly
For example, on average about 6% of AskNYPL calls are dedicated to eBook issues
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
eBook Support
eBook Calls issues closed
93% of those
calls are resolved.
This gap is lasting
user dissatisfaction.

10. 1010
Strategy & Approach

11. 11
The Strategy
Technology Needs
• Interoperability (DRM, platforms,
formats, tools)
• Standards and open specifications
• Accessibility compatibility
Market and Industry needs
• Less monopoly, monopsony (high
costs, bad licensing, limited choice,
bad UX)
• Less channel isolation/lock-in
• Access the broader market (self
publishing, independent publishers,
Public Domain)
• Lack of legal “digital right of first sale”
• Better library policies
• Better content licensing
Core Strength
• Librarian knowledge of books
(Readers Advisory)
• Scale and Money
• Public trust
• NYC developer community
Changes
• Improving standards,
• Open specifications,
• Open source community
• DRM alternatives (LCP, URMS)
• More APIs
• New technology
• Market competition
Address a need, take advantage of a change in the industry and use your
core strengths.

12. 12
Reallocate our human and financial capital
• The ICT landscape can be viewed as
a set of specialized ecosystems, each
comprising a “platform”
• Tech firms often seek to establish
their own platform(s)
• Platforms generally exhibit “lock-in”
• Switching costs
• Network effects
• Barriers to entry by
competitors
The Platform Game
Open Standards & Interoperable
Platforms
• Lower barriers to entry
• Lower switching costs between providers of
platform components
• Same tools, skills applicable across
platforms
• Promotes competition among multiple
implementations of a given architecture
• Network effects accrue across all adopters
not solely a single platform provider
• Open platforms as generative architectures

13. 13
Collaborate and support open standards
Open Publication Distribution Systems (OPDS)
Lightweight open standard based on RSS/ATOM used to create
catalogs that enable the aggregation, distribution, and discovery of
content by any user, from any source, in any digital format, and on any
device.
EPUB
A unified format standard for text-centric content that reduces costs,
foster services and content innovation, and ensure an interoperable
open ecosystem
OPDS
Cross-organization global collaboration necessary for success
Consider getting involved in IDPF, BISG, and/or Readium!

14. 14
Content
Creation
Aggregation
Print
Production Marketing
Online
Distribution
Consumption
Content
Creation
Aggregation
Digital
Production
Marketing
Online
Distribution
Consumption
Libraries Role in Physical:
Consumer, Distributor, Marketer
Define ourselves in the value chain.
Library’s Current Role:
Consumer (We subsidize eBooks readers)
Reader’s Advisory Circulation Collection/Curating
Physical Book Value Chain
eBook Value Chain
Opportunity ?
Aggregation
Digital
Production
Marketing
Online
Distribution
Consumption

15. 15
• Over the past 4 years NYPL has simply put more money into eBooks
• However there is approximately a 15% cost penalty
• Pursuit of content price reductions may offer a more efficient means of growing
circulation
65%
50%
Average annual growth of
eSpend
Average circulation growth of e
collection
Percent Growth eCirc and spend
-
50
100
150
200
250
Current Users Potential Users
Circulation Potential
* Sample Data: Top ten titles from Hachette on our 3M
Cloud Library and historical Hachette content spend
and circulation performance.
* Sample Data: NYPL p v e circulation analysis data
Seek better ROI

16. 16
Accessing the broader market would actually be more effective in
bringing popular content to Library users.
• The two largest retailers Amazon and Barn’s & Noble represent the lion share of the eBook
market.
• Their retail numbers provide a some profound insight into the eBook market over Book Industry
Data
Unit sales show that Indie publishers provide the most popular content
Indie
Published, 39%
Small Medium
Publishers, 8%
Amazon
Published, 15%
Big Five
Published, 34%
Uncategorized/
Single Author
Publisher, 4%
Source: July 2014 Author Earnings Report (Amazon)
Indie Published
30%
Small Medium
Publishers
19%
Amazon
Published
0%
Big Five
Published
50%
Uncategorized/
Single Author
Publisher
1%
Source: July 2014 Author Earnings Report (B&N)
Consider alternative publishers

17. 17
17
Use DRM for rights management, not lock-in
• DRM makes it difficult to move eBooks between devices and traps readers into
a single retail channel.
• DRM is employed on 100% of Big 5 published works, and only 50% of indie
published content.
• Indie titles without DRM sell twice as many copies each, on average, as those
with DRM on Amazon.
This suggests DRM is
being used to lock
consumers into
suppliers as opposed
to protecting the
copyright

18. 1818
Short term
1. Improve user satisfaction
2. Acquire more eContent (more copies, more titles, more vendors)
3. Improve user experience in eBook discovery and access to make the Library a viable
“one-stop shop” for finding and managing media
4. Turn high-quality, Public Domain and mid-list titles into Library bestsellers
through new models of Recommendation and Discovery
Long Term
3. Promote open source and inter-operable eBook technology
4. Improve collection acquisition costs
5. Approach authors directly to publish and acquire licenses
6. Become a “market maker” through a system-wide effort to promote books online and
through live programs
Keep at it
7. Approach publishers directly (as opposed to aggregators) about a different deal for
libraries
8. Explore lobbying and legal positions that would improve copyright vis-a-vis lending
eBooks
Approach

19. 1919
What does it look
like?

20. 2020
Not like this
Baker & Taylor eBook
Platforms
OverDrive
3M
Cloud
Library
Baker &
Taylor
Polaris
Sierra
ILS
Sierra
APIs
Polaris
APIs
Library IT Systems
Millennium
ILS
Web Pac
BiblioCommons
(OPAC)
3M eBook Platforms
OPAC
OverDrive eBook Platforms
?

21. 2121
More like this
OverDrive
3M Cloud
Library
Baker &
Taylor
Polaris
Sierra
ILS
Sierra APIs
Polaris APIs
Library Systems
Millennium
ILS
Web Pac
BiblioCommons
(OPAC)
Vendor Web Catalogue
Library
Simplified
Library
Simplified

22. 22
The Mobile App Stack
OPDS
• Collection Blocks
• Resource URLs
Licensed Code
(Proprietary)
Application Layer
(Open Source)
Adobe Adept Connector
• Adobe DRM
• Vendor ID support
Adobe DRM
Catalogue • Acquisition URLs
• XML (ATOM)
• Library License
(Free*)
Readium
SDK
Readium SDK
• EPUB2/3 support
• Media Overlays/Accessibility
• $5K/$3K annual
• Open Source
• Applications
• Applications Framework
• Java Libraries
Android OS
• Android Runtime
• Linux Kernel
• Cocoa Touch
• Native C++ support
• Media Services
Apple iOS
• Core Services
• OS
• Hardware

23. 23
The Middleware Stack
Circulation Manager
• Integration (3M, OD, B&T, OA Server, Other)
• Catalogue
• OPDS Syndication / Client Interface
Open Access Content Server
• Guttenberg / Standard Ebook
• Recovering the Classics / Gitenberg
• Other TBD
OPTIONAL
Card
Registration
NON-OPTIONAL
Meta Data “Wrangler”
• Classification
• Normalization
• Description
Rights
Management
Meta Data
Open Access
Content
Card Registration App
• Sierra Patron API
• Other TBD
Adobe Vendor ID
• Adobe License Required ($10K/yr)
Catalogue &
Circulation
OR

24. 2424
Implementation

25. 25
Option 1 (Simple – $0 Licensing fees)
Library Library Users
Simplified Middleware
• Circulation Manager
• Meta-data Service
Simplified
Implementers
Server Platforms
• On Premise (Linux) OR
• Amazon EC2
Library IT Staff
Mobile Platforms
Simplified Mobile
App

26. 26
Library Library Users
Simplified
Implementers
Library IT Staff
Option 2 (OA server, $0 licensing fees)
Simplified Middleware
• Circulation Manager
• Meta Data Service
• OA Server
Server Platforms
• On Premise (Linux) OR
• Amazon EC2
Mobile Platforms
Simplified Mobile
App

27. 27
Option 3 (Full Stack, $10K/annual vendor ID)
Simplified Middleware
• Circulation Manager
• Meta Data Wrangler or Service
• Open Access Content Server
• Adobe Vendor ID *
• Card Registration
Simplified Mobile
App
Library Library Users
Simplified
Implementers
Library IT Staff
Server Platforms
• On Premise (Linux) OR
• Amazon EC2
Mobile Platforms

28. 28
Option 4 (Custom, Licensing)
Simplified Code <>
Simplified
Implementers
Library Users
<>
Customized AppCustomized Application Services
Licensing
Readium SDK
$5K - $3K/yr
Licensing
Adobe
$10K/yr