Will the changing library truly affect the publishing world?

(This blog post has been edited from its original published version by the author)

Libraries in the traditional sense have been a major market source for the publishing industry, being usually large buildings packed full of both new and used books of various kinds. I remember when I was little, going to the library was like an adventure and I was always excited to go. I want that for my children, but after reading several articles on insidehighered.com, I am not so sure that the library as I knew it and the publishing world knew it will be around much longer.

Photo from Wilton High School Library website

With new technologies and new digital media, such as eBooks, the traditional libraries may not be 'needed' or 'used' in the immediate future.

Some university libraries, in particular, may be making the change from traditional to a more 'modern' design sooner than later. Though  university libraries and libraries in general have served a number of functions over the years, from places of study and group meetings to places to interact with technology, student and university needs are changing. However, with the world of education and publishing both taking drastic turns to incorporate new media and new technology, it's no wonder that university libraries would evolve and change as well.

According to an April 27th  insidehighered.com article by Kevin Kiley:

Recent plans at the University of Denver to permanently move four-fifths of the Penrose Library’s holdings to an off-campus storage facility and renovate the building into an “Academic Commons,” with more seating, group space, and technological capacity, are under way and could make the university a flashpoint in the debate about whether the traditional function of storing books in libraries needs to happen on campus.

The article explained that during the libraries’ renovation, the university plans to house the some 1.1 million books (including government documents and microfiche and other materials), in a storage facility roughly 10 miles from the campus. Although the university plans to bring back some of the books, most will be left in storage and only about 20 percent of the current collection will be returning to the renovated library in the end.

The University of Denver library project is estimated to be finished in December 2012. In the mean time the university will monitor the use of books to determine which will remain in the new library and which will be sent off to storage.



Photo from detocquevilles Daughter blog

A similar plan was in progress at Syracuse University in 2009, where low-use texts were planned to be housed in a facility 250 miles from campus.  This plan received high levels of disapproval and the library now plans to build a new storage facility closer to campus.

Certain major research universities, as a November 6, 2009 insidehighered.com article by Steve Kolowich explained, have moved their books to off-campus storage facilities because of space issues and  diminishing need for on-site books.

The article also stated:

Libraries everywhere are eliminating pricey subscriptions to printed academic journals, often opting for less expensive digital versions.

I wonder how this will affect the publishing industry as a whole if libraries suddenly aren't in need of hard copy books and turn entirely to digital media texts and resources?

Will the publishing industry be able to keep up with the rising use and sales of digital eBooks and the diminishing interests and needs in hard copy texts and paper bound books?

I know that my college's library is in need of a renovation, but I would hope that we would not lose the library as we know it in the process. 

New Ad-Supported Amazon Kindle sheds new light on advertising within the publishing world

(This blog post has been edited from its original published version by the author)

For some who already have an Amazon Kindle eReader, the newest development in Amazon’s Kindle may be a bit shocking or perhaps long awaited.

The latest version of the Amazon Kindle is an ad-supported version that actually costs less!!

According to an April 11th article on Cnet news by David Carnoy, Amazon shipped its new ad-supported version of the popular e-reader on May 3 for just $114 (or $25 less than the standard Wi-Fi-only Kindle, which retails for $139). This new model--available for preorder now--is also Wi-Fi-only and comes in the same carbon color as its ad-free sibling. Specs-wise, the two devices are identical. 

On the new $114 Kindle with Special Offers, Amazon's AdMash app will allow users to vote on which display ads they'd prefer as screensavers.

(Credit: Amazon)

Customers now have three  different versions of the Amazon Kindle to choose from, the ad-supported version being the cheapest and latest model.

Though some customers might find the ads on their new kindle irritating or distracting, they can quickly get around the first batch of rotating screen saver ads by hitting the home button.

On the home screen of the new kindle, customers will notice a small ad running along the bottom of the screen. As of now, ads don't appear within books themselves, though some feel that's coming soon. 

According to a Dec. 13th article on the Wall Street Journal by Emily Steel, one digital-book store, Wowio Inc., is making inroads selling ads in the e-books users download from its site onto, say, laptops or e-readers like Apple's iPad and Amazon's Kindle. Some Wowio e-books have three pages with promotions: an introduction and a closing page each with an ad, plus another full-page ad. The company also is experimenting with techniques to insert ads between chapters and to target ads using profile information that users submit to its website, says Wowio Chief Executive Brian Altounian. 

As the above video from YouTube, brings up some interesting questions about the new ad-supported kindle. (Almost is more of an audio track than a video but still has some good questions in it)

But ads in e-books will most likely be tough to sell. 

According to the Dec. 13th article by Emily Steel on the Wall Street Journal, while it was typical for books a century ago to be published in serial form with ads, in-book advertising now is atypical. For starters, most books sell only a few hundred thousand copies, not enough to interest most advertisers. And many author contracts say the writer has to approve any ads. The lifespan of books, meanwhile, is such that an ad that appears when it first was published could be irrelevant years later. But digital books can address that problem by inserting ads that are appropriate for when a person accesses the book and targeted to the reader's interests. Some companies also are working to sell space across a number of books to entice marketers to purchase ads. 

Because the new ad-supported version of the Amazon Kindle seems to work well for Amazon and will most likely attract enough sponsorship and customers due to the lower price, you might be able to expect the price of the Kindle to continue to drop over the years and maybe even become free someday...

Personally, I think that the possibility of free e-readers or even free books in general would be awesome, though I am still suspicious about Amazon’s ability to delete books; but if it was free I would probably take an Amazon Kindle anyway.

The Kindle could pose a problem to your personal library but is it really hurting the publishing world?

(This blog post has been edited from its original published version by the author)

It's hard not to love Amazon's e-book reader, the Kindle; it's light, thin, and disappears in your hands. Load up a good book and you'll soon forget you're reading plastic rather than paper. You'll also wonder how you ever did without it. The Kindle makes buying, storing, and organizing your favorite books and magazines effortless. You can take your entire library with you wherever you go and switch from reading the latest New Yorker to the latest best-seller without rolling out of bed.

This is how Farhad Manjoo defined the Amazon Kindle in a Feb. 26, 2009 article on slate.com.

Photo from ebookreadersoftware blog

I have contemplated purchasing an e-reader, and have leaned toward the Kindle in particular, partially because of definitions such as Manjoo's. However, recent research has led me to rethink purchasing a Kindle based on restrictions the e-reader puts on book owners, and the publishing world in general.

A March 22nd article by Manjoo on slate.com explained that e-readers don't allow you to share your books as you would have done when owning printed copies. The article also touched on how books purchased for an Amazon Kindle can not be resold or read on other e-readers, a luxury that printed books allow. Although companies such as Lendle, BookLending.com, and ebookfling are trying to compromise this by allowing users to borrow books for up to 14 days, these sites are being challenged by Amazon.

Photo from Gizmodo

Basically we do not truly own the ebooks we purchase as we would own paperback novels or hardcovers. In fact, Amazon has the power to go in and remotely delete titles from a user's e-reader device. A July 20, 2009 article from slate.com, also by Manjoo, explained more about the 2009 incident where certain e-book titles were wiped from user devices. And although refunds were given for the wiped files, it just seems a bit worrisome to know that Amazon can basically monitor their customer's literature even after the initial purchase of the ebooks. The article said that:

In June (of 2009), fans of Ayn Rand suffered the same fate—Amazon removed Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, and The Virtue of Selfishness, with an explanation that it had "recently discovered a problem" with the titles. And some customers have complained of the same experience with Harry Potter books. Amazon says the Kindle versions of all these books were illegal.

Photo from The Writing Nut

Amazon did promise to no longer delete customer's books...but I would still be a little wary because although they promised to never do it again...they still have the technical capabilities to delete user's books. Because of this capability and the always unstable nature of electronics I would say that today individuals who are moving their libraries to the digital age are at risk, at risk for loosing something usually taken for granted...the full ownership of our books, and not just books but music and video collections as well. A person can't even borrow out a book today, unless it's in hard copy format, without worrying about getting in trouble or loosing their book 'file'.

Many, like myself have seen the kindle and other e-readers as the future for books and the publishing world, but could they really be the beginning of digital book banning and media banning future run by large corporations?  And what will happen when the e-book world starts to be run by only a few corporations? Or perhaps is all this really trying to help out the publishing world by raising the market through restrictions so that more people have to buy a book rather than just sharing them? So many questions, so few answers...