LIBRARY EBOOK FRICTIONCHAD HAEFELE

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES LIBRARIAN, UNC CHAPEL HILL

CHAEFELE@EMAIL.UNC.EDU

NY TIMES ARTICLE

“FRICTION”• “We want to insure that customers who have typically

been book buyers do not migrate their purchasing into borrowing as accessibility to our books becomes frictionless.” –Alison Lazarus, Pres. Of Sales, Macmillan

• “Some publishers like the idea of in-library lending of ebooks as a way to recreate the “friction” of a print transaction: The patron has to physically go to the library.”

http://bit.ly/zmVVxt

WHY ARE LIBRARIES DIFFERENT?

DRM

WHAT’S LEFT?

OVERDRIVE’S PUBLISHER DEALS

PENGUIN• Used to sell ebooks to libraries, but not anymore

• Old purchased titles maintained, but no direct download to devices

HARPERCOLLINS• A library ebook can only be checked out 26 times

RANDOM HOUSE• Library ebooks cost more

• Average of 35% more• Sometimes 300% more

HACHETTE, SIMON & SCHUSTER, AND MACMILLAN

bit.ly/noebooks

TECHNOLOGICAL RESTRICTIONS

CATALOG

RIGHT OF FIRST SALE

INFLEXIBLE LOAN OPTIONS

Comic here

http://bit.ly/d5r2Dg

cHaefele@email.unc.edu