Bonus(!) Final Blog Post: Amazon and eBook Lending

I'll admit it; I bought a Kindle today. I've had the money set aside for three or four months now and have just been waiting for the Kindle to support the lending of library eBooks. Even though I don't anticipate using my Kindle for library lending often (I have a suspicion I'll still prefer physical books over eBooks), it's the principle of the matter. Now that Kindles are willing to play nice with libraries, I expected the library blogs and Twitter feeds that I follow to explode with excitement. Not the case.

Sarah Houghton-Jan had a reaction I could handle, and one I would label cautiously optimistic. Many of the questions she raises are worthy ones (like How exactly will patrons privacy be kept? and Will libraries get MARC records?) and those that I disagree with (like the disappointment that Amazon went to OverDrive for this deal instead of going directly to libraries) are minor. Bobbi Newman also takes this cautiously optimistic stance, though, again takes issue with the fact that Amazon is dealing with OverDrive instead of libraries.

Then it begins its switch towards the negative with Jason Griffey, though he still doesn't come right out and say he's not pleased with the entire deal. But that's where Andy Woodworth comes in, and it was his post that really made me mad, particularly the following argument:

"If the '1 eBook to 1 patron at a time' model is [the] best we still have when the Kindles come to Overdrive, I think it will be a serious problem. It’s not simply a matter of sending eBook wait lists skyrocketing (which it will for new releases), but that it will fail to meet patron expectations as to how eBook content should be managed."

Let's start with the idea of growing wait lists. The wait list is a concept with which library users are fully familiar, as they've been dealing with it in relation to print books for years. While it can be frustrating to wait for their turn, patrons generally understand that a library can't afford to purchase an endless copies of even the most popular titles. Though it would be wonderful if eBooks could cut down on this wait time (and I still have hope that, in the future, there could be licensing options that allow for this), it won't cause a decrease in service for patrons-- they're used to have to wait. As far as "failing to meet expectations on how eBook content should be managed," not providing eBooks for the most popular reader is a much larger failure than a wait list.

Sure, the situation doesn't fit librarians' ideals, but it's a huge step in the right direction. Did you really think Amazon's entry into the eBook lending field would solve the many other problems in that area? I fully applaud librarians posing important questions, and I think it's equally important that librarians recognize that lending Kindle eBooks is going to increase, not decrease, patron service. Having seen firsthand the disappointment on a Kindle-user's face when she was told she couldn't borrow eBooks from the library, I cannot wait until we can stop turning away that patron base. And I also can't wait to read a book on my Kindle.