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eBook expertise
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Supervisor and trainer Judy Sluss, left, of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County helps Theresa Semchee during a class on downloading eBooks.
YOUNGSTOWN
Local public libraries stand ready to help book lovers navigate the complex world of electronic books and eReaders.
The Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County offers eBooks in its collection and its workshops on how to download them onto eReaders free of charge to library cardholders.
All librarians and most library clerks have been trained to assist patrons in the use of their eBook readers.
“We are ready and eager to help, whatever their concern is, whether it’s purchasing [an eReader], learning to check out a book, or learning how to download it to their device,” said Diane Vicarel, library digital- services manager.
“There is no uniformity or consistency among them. They all download differently,” Vicarel said, adding that there are more than 100 types of eReaders on the market.
The library system doesn’t endorse any particular brand of eReader, but its website offers comparative information concerning various devices and guidance on what customers might consider when choosing which eReader best suits their needs.
“The library is buying eBooks and e-audio books, so we have a lot of material on our website that they could download” free of charge, said Deborah McCullough, manager of adult library services.
The eBooks in the library’s collection circulate for the same three-week period as its paper books, with renewals of eBooks subject to their availability.
Any library cardholder can download the library’s eBooks from any computer with Internet access anywhere in the world.
Ten people attended a recent workshop at the Newport branch on how to download eBooks onto the Nook brand of eReader, which is sold by Barnes &Noble bookstores.
Participants brought their Nooks to the session, led by librarian Judy Sluss, who taught them to use their devices in conjunction with computer terminals the library had set up in a meeting room.
“I carry books with me all the time wherever I go, so this is more convenient,” Jacquelyn Creque of Youngstown, a workshop participant, said of the Nook she received as a Christmas gift last year.
“I can download two or three books into my Nook and just take this one thing with me,” instead of carrying multiple paper books, Creque said.
Creque said she was attending the workshop because she was having difficulty downloading eBooks from the library’s collection.
“It’s nice. It’s compact. It’s easier to carry” than multiple paper books, said Linda Bohannon-White of Youngstown, media-services supervisor with Youngstown City Schools.
Bohannon-White said she was attending the workshop because she hoped to gain information from the public library to benefit the libraries in the city schools.
Policies regarding the terms of eBook availability and acquisition costs to library systems vary among major book publishers. Two of the big six publishing houses, MacMillan and Simon & Schuster, have never made eBooks available to libraries.
“We haven’t yet found a business model with which we are comfortable and that we feel properly addresses the long-term interests of our authors,” said Adam Rothberg, a Simon & Schuster spokesman.
“We’re engaged in discussions with libraries and the vendors who serve them,” Rothberg said, adding that officials of his company met with American Library Association officials concerning this matter in January.
Macmillan officials did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the access limitations, eBooks are popular items in the libraries’ collection. Since the beginning of 2012, there have been more than 20,000 eBook checkouts from the library system here, with the numbers of daily checkouts ranging from a high of 303 on Jan. 11 to a low of 118 on April 3.
The library system began offering eBooks and audio eBooks on a limited basis in August 2003. But, around 2008, better eBook formats were developed, more eReaders appeared on the market, and demand increased, according to Janet Loew, library communications and public-relations director.
Today, the local library system has a total of 4,189 purchased titles in its eBook collection, and 2,941 purchased titles in the audio eBook format.
An additional 38,000 eBook titles also are available to library cardholders free of charge through the local library’s website via Project Gutenberg, an electronic collection of books whose U.S. copyrights have expired.
The library system’s five most-popular eBook titles this year, in descending order of demand, have been “The Litigators,” “The Hunger Games,” “Hideaway,” “Foul Play” and “The Novels of Nora Roberts.”