From Library Babel Fish, April 16, 2014
Not too long ago at a gathering of librarians (I can’t recall which, exactly) I overheard a snatch of something that sank in like a splinter. I didn’t hear it clearly so I can’t quite get it out, but it’s bothering me. It was an exasperated statement to the effect that ebooks are a huge headache and students often prefer print, but libraries are no longer supposed to give up valuable space to books, so what should we do?
I have two conflicting response to this. First, if students don’t want ebooks, shouldn’t we listen to them? Aren’t we supposed to be student centered? (This is not a phrase I love, even though my undergraduate library is totally for students. I always feel as if it’s an accusation of negligence that I don’t quite grasp, or an agenda that is hidden from me.) Of course, I’ve heard librarians say that their students at their institution love ebooks and I don’t doubt them. But if students at a particular library have made their preferences clear, it seems it would be only sensible to take them seriously. Books are for use, after all, and a giant collection of ebooks that students prefer not to use may not be a terrific use of funds. But it’s hard to tell. Some ebook packages tell you not just how often an ebook was consulted, you can find out exactly how many pages were turned (so to speak). Since we have no comparable numbers for printed books other than that somebody removed it from the shelf and didn’t put it back, it’s hard to compare.
There are many reasons people don’t like the ebooks that come in academic packages. Sometimes they are difficult to use. DRM makes downloading tricky, and the platforms can be awkward. Sometimes students prefer reading from a page rather than a screen, partly because they spend so much time staring at screens and want a break, partly because they find it easier to concentrate. Sometimes ebooks have bits missing – images that can’t be included because the rights were not secured. Most of the time, they can’t be shared through interlibrary loan, and even if they legally can, there is likely no mechanism for doing so.
Often they come in big packages that cost a lot. The good news is that librarians don’t have to spend any time on book selection, they take up no space, and you only have to write one big check annually instead of writing lots of fiddly little checks. The bad news is that you’re probably paying for books your local library users aren’t interested in and you may not have any money left over for books that are interesting but aren’t in the package.
Of course, there’s a tactical way for a book lover to look at this: if libraries sink money into bookish Big Deals, they may have more books than they do when all the money goes to Big Deals full of journals and no money is left over for books. Then again, do we really want more Big Deals? Are we ready to let books join journals as the exclusive property of publishers, with nothing left for libraries to ow