Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2012

E-books in demand from Wake libraries

The virtual branch of Wake County Public Libraries is a very busy place. The digital collection went online in December 2010, and usage has been growing steadily ever since.

Fueled by e-readers and tablets beneath the tree, Christmas Day 2011 was the busiest circulation day yet: 1,361 titles were downloaded, twice the number that were checked out the day before.

“It’s been skyrocketing,” said Kevin Smith, digital library manager for Wake County. “Our main problem is keeping enough on the shelf. On Christmas Day, the vast majority of our collection was out.”

Smith manages a staff of four librarians and one assistant dedicated to the libraries’ digital system. That includes e-books, audiobooks, the website and the entire online catalog of materials available for checkout.

Patrons visiting the digital portion of the libraries site, www.wakegov.com/libraries, will find books provided by OverDrive and detailed instructions for getting started. It takes a Wake County library account, Internet access and a computer to download the library’s materials and then transfer them onto a compatible e-reader or tablet.

“We support Kindles, Nooks, iPads, anything that can run the Kindle or Overdrive App, but there is a compatibility list on the site,” Smith said.

And if you need help during the process, librarians are a text or email message away.

Christina Han is a library assistant who works the circulation desk at the busy North Regional Library. She fields digital questions from patrons inside the branch, even though there isn’t a place to plug in and download titles there.

“I show them the website and how to get there and explain the difference in e-book and audiobooks,” Han said. “It can be confusing because when you are looking for something, they all come up.”

Avid reader Heather Balsley stopped by to ask Han a few questions about the downloading process.

“I got a Kindle Fire for Christmas,” Balsley said. “I stopped here because the book I am interested in is checked out.”

Han explained the steps and Balsley said she would try to access a title at home.

Keeping the shelves full

Jacqueline Perry, a North Raleigh resident with an e-reader and a tablet, loves to read on both of her devices. Her Nook reader allows her to share titles with friends. Perry said she’d like to use the library more to download books but has been somewhat frustrated.

“They don’t always have the titles,” Perry said. “But I know that I can also go to libraries in other cities for my books.”

But some books can’t be found on any library’s virtual shelf because publishers won’t sell the titles to libraries.

“If you don’t see the latest bestseller from your favorite author, it’s because the publishing house has yet to decide what they’re going to do with public libraries,” Smith said.

Licensing restrictions are why many of the downloadable titles have waiting lists. Just like books that sit on shelves, e-books come with one copy that can be lent at a time

“It would be unfair if we bought a single copy and 900,000 people could download it simultaneously,” Smith said. “There are restrictions put on by the publishers.”

Smith says the county sometimes buys leases for unlimited checkout, but that is much more expensive. An exception is the catalog of classics that are considered to be in the public domain and can be checked out limitlessly.

Library books can be borrowed from Wake County’s cyber bookshelf for one or two weeks at a time. Patrons may go to the website and return them early, but if they do not, the titles will simply disappear from the electronic device after the two-week lending limit. Readers on a waiting list for a book will get an email to claim it during a certain time period once it is available.

The digital future

Smith doesn’t believe digital books will replace the hardbound books found on library shelves.

“I don’t see them going away anytime soon. But it is all so new and it is still being figured out,” he said.

He and the librarians believe patrons who check out physical books are also checking out downloadable titles.

Perry, the avid reader, says she is moving in the direction of all digital.

“You like to flip pages in a book until you get a reader that flips pages for you,” Perry said.