A story from today’s Morning Links proved to be an interesting case study in critical reading. It seemed straightforward enough: the folks at GoodeReader reported on a UK government study which “carry out real-time, real-world research into the impact of eBook lending in public libraries on authors, publishers and on the library service so that a suitable and sustainable model could be found.”
One of the more alarmist findings to come out of the study was the headline-making tidbit that readers who borrowed from the library “is not driving people to buy more eBooks.” But…look again. Here is the exact wording from the story:
““There has been extremely low take up of the opportunity to buy the borrowed eBook through use of the ‘click to purchase’ facility,” the Publishers Association said.”
So, that finding should be revised to read as follows: the increase in library borrowing “is not driving people to buy more eBooks FROM THE LIBRARY. This is important. They were measuring just the one metric—the uptake from the ‘click to purchase’ button on the library’s own listing. In no way does that mean it’s a given that people are not buying that book, or other books, from elsewhere!
As a reader, I am fairly wedded to the Kindle architecture, for instance. Obviously, I do read books from other sources, including my library. And I buy or download from other sources too, such as Smashwords, Delphi Classics, Humble Bundle or Project Gutenberg. But those vendors all make Kindle-format books available to me; my public library does not. So when I borrow from them, there are one of two outcomes: if I buy that particular book, I buy it from Amazon. Or I choose not to buy that particular book, but I buy instead a different book when I am in the buying mood.
In short: I do buy books. Just not from the library. We need to read critically when we see studies like this and pay close attention to what is being measured. Just because people are not buying from the library, it doesn’t mean they are not buying at all.
I checked up on this when I covered it, and apparently the only buying option offered on the library website was Kobo. This, in a market dominated by Kindle, was simply ridiculous.