What's the Difference Between Borrowing E-Books and Borrowing Print Books?

Short answer? None.

The procedure for borrowing an e-book from your local library is pretty much the same as borrowing a p-book, except you don't have to travel any further than the distance to your PC. Nor are the economics different. Your library buys an e-book from a publisher. It is then offered for loan to the library's patrons, and there is a waiting list. When your turn comes up you download the e-book and have it exclusively for a limited period of time. When that time expires the e-book disappears from the patron's computer and is offered to the next person on the waiting list. If a book is popular, a library or library system may buy more than one e-book version enabling the library to offer it to multiple borrowers.

We've detailed the process here because many publishers mistakenly believe that they are being asked to donate e-books to libraries for no compensation, and that the libraries' rights are in perpetuity. In other words, they fear that they're giving e-books away for nothing and forever. As a result, the concept of a lending e-library has not yet rung a bell with all publishers. "Simon & Schuster, whose authors include Stephen King and Bob Woodward, has also refrained from distributing its e-books to public libraries, writes New York Times's Motoko Rich in Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending. She quotes an S&S spokesman as saying, “'We have not found a business model that works for us and our authors.'”

It's important that book publishers understand the economics of the e-book lending process, and the go-to guy for a tutorial is Steve Potash, founder of OverDrive, the leading supplier of e-books to libraries.

Another issue hampering e-book lending is that Kindle and iPhone don't observe the practice.Rich writes "For now, the expansion will be slowed in part because, with few exceptions, e-books in public libraries cannot be read on Amazon’s Kindle, currently the best-selling electronic reader, or on Apple’s iPhone, which has rapidly become a popular device for reading e-books. Most library editions are compatible with the Sony Reader, computers and a handful of other mobile devices."

Despite the slow takeoff , e-books are now offered at more than 5000 public libraries, and downloads in 2009 to date exceed 1 million units.

RC

Every Blogger owes a debt of gratitude to newspapers and magazines. This posting relies on original research and reporting performed by the New York Times.