Libraries, Ebooks, and Competition

Fuente: ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Hellman, Eric
Format: Recurso educativo Open Access
Language:en
Published: 2010
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author Hellman, Eric
author_facet Hellman, Eric
Hellman, Eric
collection Education Resources Information Center
contents Libraries, Ebooks, and Competition Hellman, Eric Competition Internet Library Services Electronic Publishing Library Materials Electronic Libraries Libraries People keep writing articles about how valuable libraries are, even with ebooks and the Internet. What people are overlooking is that the reason libraries are having such fits dealing with a changing environment is not that libraries are unrecognized as fountains of value, it's that libraries are so valuable that they attract voracious new competition with every technological advance. Just as the Internet introduced both competition for existing library services and openings for new library ones, the introduction of ebooks presents additional opportunities for competition with and by libraries. The shift to ebook delivery presents a variety of challenges for libraries. They will have to figure out how to manage ebook reading devices, reader application software, rights management, and licensing. The author argues that there is still a lot of uncertainty about how and when libraries develop ebook services as well as how libraries might best fit in a world where books are mostly consumed via ebook readers. He contends that if libraries just sit back and wait to see what happens, rather than participating in the cycle of innovation and competition, they will end up with diminished roles in America's culture.
format Recurso educativo Open Access
id eric_EJ925991
institution ERIC Institute of Education Sciences
language en
publishDate 2010
record_format eric
spellingShingle Libraries, Ebooks, and Competition
Hellman, Eric
Competition
Internet
Library Services
Electronic Publishing
Library Materials
Electronic Libraries
Libraries
Libraries, Ebooks, and Competition Hellman, Eric Competition Internet Library Services Electronic Publishing Library Materials Electronic Libraries Libraries People keep writing articles about how valuable libraries are, even with ebooks and the Internet. What people are overlooking is that the reason libraries are having such fits dealing with a changing environment is not that libraries are unrecognized as fountains of value, it's that libraries are so valuable that they attract voracious new competition with every technological advance. Just as the Internet introduced both competition for existing library services and openings for new library ones, the introduction of ebooks presents additional opportunities for competition with and by libraries. The shift to ebook delivery presents a variety of challenges for libraries. They will have to figure out how to manage ebook reading devices, reader application software, rights management, and licensing. The author argues that there is still a lot of uncertainty about how and when libraries develop ebook services as well as how libraries might best fit in a world where books are mostly consumed via ebook readers. He contends that if libraries just sit back and wait to see what happens, rather than participating in the cycle of innovation and competition, they will end up with diminished roles in America's culture.
title Libraries, Ebooks, and Competition
topic Competition
Internet
Library Services
Electronic Publishing
Library Materials
Electronic Libraries
Libraries
url https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ925991