Library Simplified at ALA 2015

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Library SimplifiedAmy Calhoun – Sacramento Public Library

James English - The New York Public Library

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1. What is “Library Simplified”

2. Why are we doing this?

3. Strategy & Approach

4. What does it look like?

5. Implementation

6. Partner round table

7. Q&A

Table of Contents

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What is “Library Simplified”

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Collaborations and Partnerships

Public LibrariesNew York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, Boston Public Library,

Sacramento Public Library, Santa Clara County Library, Alameda County Public

Library, Kent District Library, Cincinnati/Hamilton Public Library, Cuyahoga Public

Library, Chattanooga Public Library

Individuals, Communities and Commercial/Non-commercial EnterpriseLibrarians, developers, designers, volunteer experts, tech evangelists, open

source communities, The Readium Foundation, IDPF, standards bodies,

Feedbooks, 3M, Sony DADC, Creative Action Network

Government InstitutionsThe Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)

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It’s a solution

Ideal process for Library Simplified

Search for titlein catalog

Sign in to borrow

Download eBook to device

3 Steps or less

Discover | Borrow | Read

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Why are we doing this?

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The current market solutions are flawed…

Search for titlein catalog

Current process

Find record in eBook format

Follow link to eBook site

Sign in to eBook site

Download eBook to device

Sign in to catalog

Up to 19 steps today

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…and it shows.

Library Commercial-50%

0%

50%

100%

150%

200%

250%

157%

209%

Library eBook adoption trails commercial sector by 52%

eBooks Physical Books

Good to Excellent Fair to Poor0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

How is your library eBook Selec-tion?

% of Respondants

Library Commercial0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

5%12%

95%

72%

Commercial eBook vs Physical readership 3X that of Library

eBooks Physical

We just don’t see the same level of adoption of eBooks when compared to our physical collections and the commercial market

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What are the flaws?

Finding Book

Finding Availability

Finding Format

Placing Hold

Check Outs

Notifications

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%100%

What do Patrons find Hardest or Easiest with get-ting ebooks from Library?

Hardest Easiest

Help finding eBooks

Help Borrowing an eBook

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

How often do patrons call seeking help find-ing or borrowing eBooks

Never Seldom Often Regularly

For example, on average about 6% of AskNYPL calls are dedicated to eBook issues

Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

eBook Support

eBook Calls issues closed

93% of those calls are resolved. This gap is lastinguser dissatisfaction.

1010

Strategy & Approach

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The Strategy

Technology Needs• Interoperability (DRM, platforms,

formats, tools) • Standards and open specifications• Accessibility compatibility

Market and Industry needs• Less monopoly, monopsony (high

costs, bad licensing, limited choice, bad UX)

• Less channel isolation/lock-in• Access the broader market (self

publishing, independent publishers, Public Domain)

• Lack of legal “digital right of first sale”

• Better library policies• Better content licensing

Core Strength• Librarian knowledge of books

(Readers Advisory)• Scale and Money• Public trust• NYC developer community

Changes• Improving standards,• Open specifications, • Open source community• DRM alternatives (LCP,

URMS) • More APIs• New technology• Market competition

Address a need, take advantage of a change in the industry and use your core strengths.

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Reallocate our human and financial capital

• The ICT landscape can be viewed as a set of specialized ecosystems, each comprising a “platform”

• Tech firms often seek to establish their own platform(s)

• Platforms generally exhibit “lock-in”

• Switching costs• Network effects• Barriers to entry by

competitors

The Platform GameOpen Standards &

Interoperable Platforms

• Lower barriers to entry

• Lower switching costs between providers of platform components

• Same tools, skills applicable across platforms

• Promotes competition among multiple implementations of a given architecture

• Network effects accrue across all adopters not solely a single platform provider

• Open platforms as generative architectures

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Collaborate and support open standards

Open Publication Distribution Systems (OPDS)Lightweight open standard based on RSS/ATOM used to create catalogs that enable the aggregation, distribution, and discovery of content by any user, from any source, in any digital format, and on any device.

EPUBA unified format standard for text-centric content that reduces costs, foster services and content innovation, and ensure an interoperable open ecosystem

OPDS

Cross-organization global collaboration necessary for successConsider getting involved in IDPF, BISG, and/or Readium!

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Content Creation

AggregationPrint

Production MarketingOnline

DistributionConsumption

Content Creation

AggregationDigital

ProductionMarketing

OnlineDistribution

Consumption

Libraries Role in Physical: Consumer, Distributor, Marketer

Define ourselves in the value chain.

Library’s Current Role: Consumer (We subsidize eBooks readers)

Reader’s Advisory CirculationCollection/Curating

Physical Book Value Chain

eBook Value Chain

Opportunity ?

AggregationDigital

ProductionMarketing

OnlineDistribution

Consumption

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• Over the past 4 years NYPL has simply put more money into eBooks

• However there is approximately a 15% cost penalty

• Pursuit of content price reductions may offer a more efficient means of growing circulation

Average annual growth of eSpend

Average circulation growth of e collection

65%

50%

Percent Growth eCirc and spend

Current Users Potential Users -

50

100

150

200

250

Circulation Potential

* Sample Data: Top ten titles from Hachette on our 3M Cloud Library and historical Hachette content spend and circulation performance.

* Sample Data: NYPL p v e circulation analysis data

Seek better ROI

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Accessing the broader market would actually be more effective in bringing popular content to Library users.

• The two largest retailers Amazon and Barn’s & Noble represent the lion share of the eBook market.

• Their retail numbers provide a some profound insight into the eBook market over Book Industry Data

Unit sales show that Indie publishers provide the most popular content

Indie Pub-lished; 39%

Small Medium Publishers; 8%

Amazon Published; 15%

Big Five Pub-lished; 34%

Uncategorized/Single Au-thor Publisher; 4%

Source: July 2014 Author Earnings Report (Amazon)

Indie Published30%

Small Medium Publishers

19%

Big Five Pub-lished50%

Uncategorized/Single Au-thor Publisher

1%

Source: July 2014 Author Earnings Report (B&N)

Consider alternative publishers

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Use DRM for rights management, not lock-in

• DRM makes it difficult to move eBooks between devices and traps readers into a single retail channel.

• DRM is employed on 100% of Big 5 published works, and only 50% of indie published content.

• Indie titles without DRM sell twice as many copies each, on average, as those with DRM on Amazon.

This suggests DRM is being used to lock consumers into suppliers as opposed to protecting the copyright

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Short term 1. Improve user satisfaction2. Acquire more eContent (more copies, more titles, more vendors)3. Improve user experience in eBook discovery and access to make the

Library a viable “one-stop shop” for finding and managing media4. Turn high-quality, Public Domain and mid-list titles into Library

bestsellers through new models of Recommendation and Discovery

Long Term

3. Promote open source and inter-operable eBook technology4. Improve collection acquisition costs5. Approach authors directly to publish and acquire licenses6. Become a “market maker” through a system-wide effort to promote books

online and through live programs

Keep at it

7. Approach publishers directly (as opposed to aggregators) about a different deal for libraries

8. Explore lobbying and legal positions that would improve copyright vis-a-vis lending eBooks

Approach

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What does it look like?

2020

Not like this

Baker & Taylor eBook Platforms

OverDrive3M Cloud

Library

Baker & Taylor

Polaris

SierraILS

Sierra APIs

Polaris APIs

Library IT Systems

MillenniumILS

Web Pac

BiblioCommons(OPAC)

3M eBook Platforms

OPAC

OverDrive eBook Platforms

?

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More like this

OverDrive 3M Cloud Library

Baker & Taylor

Polaris

SierraILS

Sierra APIs

Polaris APIs

Library Systems

MillenniumILS

Web Pac

BiblioCommons(OPAC)

Vendor Web Catalogue

Library Simplifie

d

Library Simplified

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The Mobile App Stack

OPDS• Collection

Blocks• Resource URLs

Licensed Code(Proprietary)

Application Layer(Open Source)

Adobe Adept Connector• Adobe DRM• Vendor ID support

Adobe DRM

Catalogue • Acquisition URLs• XML (ATOM)

• Library License (Free*)

Readium SDK

Readium SDK• EPUB2/3 support• Media Overlays/Accessibility

• $5K/$3K annual• Open Source

• Applications• Applications Framework• Java Libraries

Android OS• Android Runtime• Linux Kernel

• Cocoa Touch• Native C++ support• Media Services

Apple iOS• Core Services• OS• Hardware

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The Middleware Stack

Circulation Manager• Integration (3M, OD, B&T, OA Server,

Other)• Catalogue• OPDS Syndication / Client Interface

Open Access Content Server• Guttenberg / Standard Ebook• Recovering the Classics / Gitenberg • Other TBD

OPTIONAL

Card Registration

NON-OPTIONAL

Meta Data “Wrangler”• Classification• Normalization• Description

Rights Management

Meta Data

Open AccessContent

Card Registration App• Sierra Patron API• Other TBD

Adobe Vendor ID• Adobe License Required ($10K/yr)

Catalogue &Circulation

OR

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Implementation

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Option 1 (Simple – $0 Licensing fees)

Library Library Users

Simplified Middleware• Circulation Manager• Meta-data Service

Simplified Implementers

Server Platforms• On Premise (Linux) OR• Amazon EC2

Library IT Staff

Mobile Platforms

Simplified Mobile App

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Library IT Staff

Option 2 (OA server, $0 licensing fees)

Simplified Middleware• Circulation Manager• Meta Data Service• OA Server


Mobile Platforms


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Option 3 (Full Stack, $10K/annual vendor ID)

Simplified Middleware• Circulation Manager• Meta Data Wrangler or Service• Open Access Content Server• Adobe Vendor ID *• Card Registration




Library IT Staff


Mobile Platforms

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Option 4 (Custom, Licensing)

Simplified Code <>


Library Users

<>

Customized AppCustomized Application ServicesLicensingReadium SDK $5K - $3K/yr

LicensingAdobe$10K/yr

Library Simplified at ALA 2015

Technology

Transcript of Library Simplified at ALA 2015