How does this classic institution evolve and influence the future of publishing?

Libraries and tomorrow's book world

6/8/13

Wait, what do libraries have to do with the future of publishing? Don't they just put books on shelves after they're published and then spend the rest of the time trying to get you to be quiet?

It turns out that there is a groundswell of change happening in libraries across the country. As the Official BEA Librarian Blogger writes, there are some important trends that are changing the way libraries relate to books, and they have a ripple effect out through the publishing industry. Here's how:

Library Trends Changing Publishing:

1. eBook and Publishing House terms: Ebooks are inexpensive to produce and practically free to distribute. So, should we all be able to borrow every ebook for free from the local library? Should there be unlimited copies? How much should a library pay for the rights to loan out that ebook? These are big questions, and publishing houses all have different answers. There is no standard yet. In this age of open source and freemium content, libraries turn out to be the front lines for digital rights management.

2. Tech for everyone: Whatever is going on in commercials and marketing, the real story of how people are reading is what's affordable and happening with big groups of people, like the groups at libraries. Libraries are ideal incubators for ideas and new tech- I think publishers should be actively giving libraries resources and seeing what sticks.

3. Local: In the end, it's really about what the people who physically live near a library need and want from that library. As the offical BEA librarian writes:

"I think that the core of all of these trends should be YOUR patrons … every library has their own community of patrons – weather you’re in an urban library where your branches are mere blocks apart, or a more rural library where each town is its own system... I think that libraries need to really analyze THEIR patrons – throw some surveys up their websites, run some stats in your ILS – let the PATRONS tell you what THEY want. Don’t necessarily fall in line with the trends just because they’re hot - because as soon as they’re hot … they’re …. Not."

That's the secret: figure out what the people who use your service want. It's the same for libraries as for publishing houses as for book websites. The trends will have micro-differences based on the local context. Which is what big publishers are figuring out, and what websites know and are learning to cater to.

What role do you think libraries will play in the future of publishing?

Image source: Muffet via flickr

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