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National Library Week (@AtYourLibrary) (#nlw11) is the annual event to promote local libraries and the quality service they provide to their communities. Library trends of the past year are detailed in The State of America’s Libraries, 2011, just released by the American Library Association (@alanews). Here are a few highlights reported in American Libraries magazine (@amlibraries):

·         The availability of wireless Internet in public libraries is approaching 85%, and about two-thirds of them extend wireless access outside the library. Computer usage at public libraries continues to increase.

·         Almost all academic libraries offer ebooks, as do more than two-thirds of public libraries. For most libraries, ebooks are only still a small percentage of circulated items – but represent the fastest-growing segment.

·         12% of academic libraries circulate preloaded e-reading devices, while 26% are considering it. (Kindle tops the device chart at 81%, followed by Sony at 34%, iPad at 28%, and Nook at 22%.)

·         6% of school libraries circulate preloaded e-reading devices, while 36% are considering it. (The Sony Reader leads the way at 64%, Kindle followed at 47%, Nook at 15%, and iPad at 4%.)

·         5% of public libraries circulate preloaded e-reading devices, while 24% are considering it. Kindle is the leader here.

·         Among academic libraries, social sciences is the discipline most likely to offer ebooks (83%), followed by science at 82%, technology (80%), humanities (77%), medicine (69%), and law (51%).

·         In school libraries, children’s fiction top the ebook charts at 51%, followed by reference (42%), children’s nonfiction (39%), children’s picture books (34%), and young adult nonfiction (24%) and fiction (23%).

·         In public libraries, adult nonfiction leads the way (86%), with adult fiction at 84%, bestsellers at 76%, young adult fiction at 69%, and children’s fiction at 56%. Young adult nonfiction, children’s nonfiction, reference, and children’s picture books “score” less than 50%.

·         A battle over the future of widely used ebooks was joined in March, when HarperCollins announced that it will not allow its ebooks to be checked out from a library more than 26 times, raising the possibility that ebooks that are not repurchased would be available at the library for only about a year. The ALA issued its response.

Read this in full.

Rebecca Miller of Library Journal magazine (@LibraryJournal) shares 10 favorite library locations as attractions in and of themselves:

·         Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, New York Public Library, New York City

·         Fayetteville Public Library, Fayetteville, AR

·         Seattle Central Library, Seattle, WA

·         Geisel Library, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA

·         Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

·         Weippe Public Library, Weippe, ID

·         Harold Washington Library Center, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL

·         Boston Athenaeum, Boston, MA

·         Deadwood Public Library, Deadwood, SD

·         Central Denver Public Library, Denver, CO

Read about these library locations in full.

As a publisher, agent, or author, how are you networking with your local library? Comment below.

Digital Book World (@DigiBookWorld) recently hosted the webcast “Reader Experience and E-books: What UX Experts Can Teach Publishers.” Here are a few take-aways:

• The digital reader experience isn’t just about the container, but also about the content.
• Readers should be able to control their own digital reading experience.
• Choose the right platform for the right content.
• Think about the experience through the lens of the medium. What’s important in print may not be important in digital.
• Look to textbook and academic journal publishing for lessons in how to integrate digital and multimedia components, online access, and community engagement with printed books.
• Workflow processes must change.
• Ebooks have actually restored interest in a good reading experience.
• Stay open to change.

Read this in full.

Let Somersault help you navigate 21^st century publishing. And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard created especially for publishing and marketing professionals.

The New York Times (@NYTimes) reports the Digital Public Library of America (#DPLA) is still in its infancy, but it’s a concept supported by librarians from major universities and officials from the National Archives and the Library of Congress. The project’s ambitious mission, recently described in a four-page memorandum, is to “make the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity available, free of charge, to all.”

The project is playing catch up not only to Google, but also to Europe, where several countries have proceeded with large digitization projects. The European Commission has backed Europeana, (@EuropeanaEU) a website where users can search for digital copies of 15 million works of art, books, music and video held by the cultural institutions of member countries.

Read this in full.

Also see LibraryCity (@LibraryCity).

Click to enlarge this Infographic by Column Five (@Columnfive) to view statistics regarding the mobilization of today’s digital native and his/her comfort level with consuming content (news, but by implication & extrapolation, also books) electronically.

Baptist Press (@baptistpress) reports on the surge among Christians to use mobile applications in accessing the Bible, especially in a mobile context.

There are Christian apps on every smartphone platform, but among the two most popular platforms -- Android and iPhone's iOS -- there are literally hundreds of Bible and Christian-themed apps, helping believers with everything from Scripture memorization to lesson preparation to Bible study to witnessing....

The most popular Christian app, by far, is the YouVersion Bible app (@YouVersion), developed by the multiple-site-campus church known as LifeChurch.tv.

Read this article in full. Also see “Christian Apps of the Month.”

Ministries and churches are creating their own apps to further their messages. For example, see the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (@BGEA) mobile site and its “Steps2Peace” app.

Let Somersault create a strategic app for your brand. Be sure to use daily our SomersaultNOW dashboard to remain current with the latest developments in social media marketing and digital publishing. And as long as we’re talking about mobility, be sure to regularly use Somersault’s mobile site for links to other mobile-friendly sites.

Jon Hirst (@generousmind), account manager at Novo Ink (@novoink), identifies the problem of non-working Web URLs linked to by authors in their ebooks. He says, “With the instability of links on the Web, I am finding that many of the links that authors share in their books do not work even a short time after their book is published.” Among the solutions he suggests:

1. The first and most obvious is to discipline yourself to use references and citations from major organizations or Web sites that will be more stable than “Joe’s Favorite Founding Fathers Quotes.” You know that if you use Wikipedia, The New York Times, American Heart Association, etc. you will be more likely to present a valid resource to your readers.
2. When dealing with links to connect with the author, the publisher should encourage the author to centralize all such links to the URL they are most likely to keep over time. Many times this ends up being the author’s name or the name of their organization. Book websites seem like a good idea when the book launches, but after five years many of them are gone and that contact is lost.

Read other solutions he offers.

Provide your suggestions in the comments below.

Ron Benrey (@ronbenrey), posting on the blog Fiction After 50, lays out a rational approach to the art of pricing ebooks.

At first, we couldn’t understand why someone willing to spend $18 for two movie tickets would recoil at spending 10 bucks on an ebook. After all, a movie is a one-time event, whereas an ebook can be read again and again (and, with some ereaders, lent to other people).

We then we thought some more...

1. We paid for our ebook readers (which makes an ebook more like renting a DVD than going to a first-run movie).

2. Even more important, we know that ebooks (unlike movies, library books, or paper-back books) are cheap to produce. We think it’s unfair for a publisher to charge the same price for an ebook as for a paper book.

All at once, the penny dropped (as the Brits say). We began to understand why customers might perceive three to four bucks as a fair price for an ebook. They are doing an instinctive cost analysis and realizing that an ebook selling at $2.99 and a trade paper book selling for $14.99 can net a publisher the same profits. (This is eerily close to the truth when you consider the cost of printing, transportation, distribution, warehousing, and returns.)

Simply put ... there’s no reason for a publisher to charge 15, 20, even 25 dollars for an ebook — other than a seriously overdeveloped profit motive.

Read the full post.

Do you agree with him?

You’ll also want to read his post “eBook ‘Tipping Points’”

Like giving away the razor to sell more blades, Amy Gahran (@agahran) suggests that Amazon might be coming to a point where it makes more sense to offer the Kindle (@AmazonKindle) for free in order to sell more ebooks.  She writes, “Last year, nearly $1 billion in ebooks were sold, according to Forrester. By 2015, this is expected to jump to $3 billion. That's an awful lot of money to be made selling ebooks. At that point, selling e-readers at any price might just become an obstacle to selling more ebooks. So why not just give away some e-readers for free?” She continues:

In a way, Amazon has already been giving away Kindles for awhile -- in the form of the free Kindle smartphone, tablet, and computer apps. Right now, about 6 million US adults own e-readers -- but this field is getting much more crowded.

According to recent research from Changewave, Kindle currently holds 47% of the e-reader market. Apple's iPad (which is much more than an e-reader, so I'm not sure that's a fair comparison) holds only 32% of this market. Sony's Reader, at 5%, is just barely leading the Barnes & Noble Nook, at 4%....

The Kindle's core business model has always been to sell books, not devices. So a free Kindle seems like a potentially savvy business move.

Amy goes on to offer ways Amazon could maintain its market lead through creative initiatives, such as:

1. Buy X number of Kindle books, get a Kindle free
2. Free Kindles for Amazon Prime members
3. Partner Kindle giveaways

Read the CNN article in full.

How do you think publishers, content creators, and booksellers should prepare for the day the price of e-readers becomes negligible?

Chart of the Day (@chartoftheday) compares current tablet ownership with the world population. Two extremes, granted, but not so far-fetched when you compare with mobile subscribers.

The potential for growth in the tablet market for Apple, Google, RIM, and others is still massive. Only 0.3% of the Earth's inhabitants owned a tablet at the end of 2010, RBC analyst Mike Abramsky notes today in a detailed, 88-page report about the future of the tablet market. That means 99.7% of the people on Earth still haven't bought a tablet yet!

Read this in full.

What do you think the implications are for publishers, agents, ministries, organizations, and authors as you go about creating content?

This article by Katherine Boehret (@kabster728) in The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) highlights the new ability to wirelessly download electronic books from your local library using the Apple iPad or an Android tablet. She writes, “OverDrive Inc. (@OverDriveLibs) released OverDrive Media Console for the iPad, a free app from Apple's App Store. With the app, you can now borrow eBooks for reading on the go with a tablet.” She goes on

You can already borrow an eBook from a library using an eReader, including the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble Nook, but you'll need a PC and a USB cable for downloading and synching. Amazon's Kindle doesn't allow borrowing eBooks from libraries....

There's a major downside to borrowing digital books. If the book you want is checked out, you still have to wait until someone returns it to borrow it. OverDrive's licenses allow one book copy per person, so several people can't simultaneously borrow the same eBook. Libraries can buy several licenses for a title so they can have multiple copies of popular books for borrowing….

OverDrive serves more than 13,000 libraries with a catalog of 400,000 titles from 1,000 publishers

How do you see the free digital borrowing of ebooks from public libraries to be a positive development for book publishers?

Read this article in full.