DCL Ebook Report September 2014

September 8, 2014

Read the Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries Ebook Report as a PDF file.

There are some distinct oddities in this month's report.

On the library pricing for print, Ingrams seems consistently cheaper than Baker & Taylor. And in one case (Dragonfly in Amber) Baker & Taylor charges twice as much.

On the ebook side, OverDrive and 3M are pretty much neck and neck. As for library ebook pricing compared to consumer ebook pricing, the average is 5 to 1. Yep, we continue to pay 5 times what consumers play, despite our contribution to publisher and author discovery and demand.

What else? We have a couple of books that are available as ebooks with OverDrive and 3M, but not in print (Upside Down and Not a Drill). Books available as print, but not as an ebook from one or the other distributor include We Are Not Ourselves, All the Light We Cannot See, Percy Jackon's Greek Gods, Star Wars: Jedi Academy, Return of the Padawan, and The Care and Keeping of You.

It's a fragmented market, to be sure.

JAMES LARUE writes, speaks, and consults on the future of libraries. He can be contacted at jlarue@jlarue.com.