E-books @ Melbourne Library Service

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E-books _at_Melbourne Library Service
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MLS snapshot

• Five service points
• City Library
• North Melbourne Library
• East Melbourne Library Community Centre
• Hub_at_Docklands Access point
• www.mebournelibraryservice.com.au
• 47 EFT (65 people)
• 6.5 million operating budget

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MLS snapshot

• 70 non-resident usage
• Serving a rapidly increasing resident population
  (200775,000, 2011104,000)
• 17-35 years largest users
• Time poor customers
• City Library busiest public library in Victoria
• International student usage
• 8 increase in usage per annum
• Vertical communities
• Cardless members
• Attract people who are traditionally non-users
• Both community and CBD library service

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MLS snapshot

• Usage 2009-10
• 79,964 members (45,000 active in 09-10)
• 27,000 new members
• 157,000 items in collection
• 1,269,951 loans
• 1,096,775 visits
• 2,732,318 web page views (12 million hits)
• 185,624 computer bookings
• 28,000 database searches
• Open 204.5 hours per week.

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Snapshot YTD 2011

• January April 2011
• 415795 loans (print and a/v)
• 328670 visits
• 60996 reserved items collected
• 188000 unique visits to website
• 13524 new members
• 6293 e-audio/e-book loans
• 1555 cardless members (301 verified)
• North Melbourne Library closed all January 2011

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• 2010

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Timeline

• September 2009
• Overdrive e-audio (200 titles)
• October 2010
• Overdrive e-books (400 titles)
• December 2010
• Bolinda e-audio (400 titles)

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Access
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Access
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Access
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Access
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Access
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Access
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Current collection

• 916 Overdrive e-books
• 630 Adobe e-pub
• 286 Adobe PDF
• 460 Overdrive e-audio
• 132 MP3
• 328 Windows media audio (WMA)
• 603 Bolinda e-audio (MP3)
• E-book turnover Jan-April4 (5.2 e-pub)

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April 2011- loans

• 706 Overdrive e-books (40 on March)
• 652 Adobe e-pub
• 54 Adobe PDF
• 466 Overdrive e-audio
• 178 MP3
• 288 WMA
• 562 Bolinda e-audio
• 1734 e-loans in total

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Usage

• What is hot
• Crime and mystery
• Contemporary fiction
• Classic fiction
• Romance
• What is not
• Graphic novels

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Success!

• Critical mass
• Ask the customers
• Improve access (Cardless membership)
• Work closely with the vendor(s)
• Promote heavily and frequently
• Regularly add content
• Monitor usage continuously
• Increase internet bandwidth
• Focus on access not the device

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Enhancements improvements

• Improve access via library catalogue
• Consortia arrangement
• Lobby the publishing industry

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Access
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Challenges

• Publisher resistance
• Range and quality of titles
• Available content v actual demand
• Digital Rights Management (DRM) limiting content
  to particular devices eg Amazon to Kindle
• Geographic restrictions eg some publishers wont
  allow access for Australia

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Challenges

• Software requirements
• Various formats (pdf/epub/mp3/wma)
• Many players/vendors
• Seamless user access
• Integration with ILMS and library catalogue
• Inconsistent loan periods
• Resistance to consortia arrangements

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Challenges

• Licence agreements and membership
• One copy per user limitation
• Budget constraints (capital v operational)
• Who owns the content
• What about LOTE?

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Coming up in 2011/12

• Freegal
• Southbank Library digital focus
• Investigating other e-book providers (3M)

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Questions