Today I’m speaking at the SFU Summer Publishing Workshop on Digital Strategies.
Speaking now …
Christoph Kapp, Manager, Library & Digital Services, Special Sales, Custom Solutions at Login Canada on markets and strategies for digital publishing.
Why focus on libraries?
Example of a university library annual budget: $14 million
Majority goes to journals.
Libraries are places of discovery, connection, sharing.
$500 million a year is spent on content.
Libraries are in transition. As materials move online, libraries are no longer about paper books. This has initiated changes in the library environment and across Canada.
Librarians are not …
Librarians are experts.
* Highly Trained
* And experience in training others
* Customer focused
* Matchmakers
* Quality Seekers
* Value Seekers
* Results oriented (usage is important, not just making content available)
* Sustainability oriented: Not just eco, but sustainable usage goals, ROI
* Strategic partners
Digital Content trends in Canadian libraries
Content of corporate libraries is not quite 100% but many are providing 90-100% digital vs. printed materials for their members. Their organizations are digitally publishing their reports and studies, etc. Corporate librarians are therefore well ahead of others bringing content online.
University libraries are catching up. They have a larger collection to oversee, which has slowed them down.
K-12 is the slowest to adopt digital. Many of the relevant teaching materials are not digital. Plus there are issues of availability/accessibility to funding for digital materials. Books and basketballs are easier to pitch for than funding for databases.
Religious and private schools are slightly ahead.
Hospitals were slow to uptake but the spike is significant.
* Digital packages for ebooks are more readily available.
* Consolidation in the health care sector means that digital is a cost effective measure.
(Monique’s aside: I wonder what this means about Kindle and other mobile reading devices, or even content sent via the tv sets available at bedside. Devices walk but I wonder about materials distributed as a tv signal…)
Old infrastructure of hospitals (lovely brick walls, cables vs. air signals) also affects the possibilities in this market.
Challenges
Money is not the challenge. They have the budget. Proving the demand for your content is the challenge.
The typical challenges fall into these categories.
Old-school digital: Can you get investment in new tools? If the current system is “good enough”, this is a customer issue that you have to leap.
There are so many digital options: The customer can be overwhelmed.
There are types and standards: ebooks, databases, DVD/CD/Audio, OEM/systems/gadgets, integrated and custom/bundles, file standards (pdf, xml, OeB, ePub)
There are platforms: aggregators, publishers, libraries
Aggregators are an option because publishers didn’t build their own platforms (where/how customers get access). So the aggregators built the platform and bought licenses from the publishers.
(Monique’s aside: Yet another thing publishers didn’t do for themselves, making their business/revenue dependent on a third party. Hello Google. Hello Amazon.)
There are pricing models: single download, subscription (concurrence, unlimited), perpetual (access forever, by paying a higher amount, you have access forever), local-load (started at Stanford, this is where UofT has invested in own infrastructure, they own and house and control that content), other
(Monique’s aside: how do you “control” and price your content? Local-load is an interesting spin because it’s the closest thing to “ownership” of the print book. Custom course packs look really interesting in this model.)
Scholar’s portal is owned by 22 Ontario universities and they can buy and access all the materials in this system. So 1 sale to the portal, with access to all. This creates interesting legal issues. The contracts define the usage.
(Christoph’s aside: Precedent setting Master license is coming soon with schedules for reference, trade, rate, and for textbook use. So far, it’s been 1 or nothing licensing. This is a totally different business model. It’s not open access, it’s 1 use at 1 time. When it’s not material adopted for courses, then it’s more open. This provides the content but manages the demand vs. the supply.)
Then there are periods: one-time, annual, multi-year, mix
(Christoph’s aside: California matters in publishing because it’s a good model to look at for Canadian publishing. Studying what happens in California is indicative of what might work in Canada. Similar population make-up.)
Content Is King. Or is it?
In libraries, “Content Is King” is re-written to “Usage Is King.” Librarians need to prove that the content is being used.
(Monique’s aside: Librarians want the People’s Prince, not the Inaccessible King.)
Collect, measure, analyze the usage = Deci$ion to buy.
Once again, this great info is from the SFU Digital Strategy session by Christoph Kapp, Manager, Library & Digital Services, Special Sales, Custom Solutions at Login Canada speaking on markets and strategies for digital publishing.
Now beautiful library photos:
