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Essex e-book service

Essex County Libraries was one of the first library services in England to introduce e-books. They used funding obtained from the Laser Foundation to pilot an approach which was managed jointly with Co-East and Loughborough University. The aim of the pilot was to find out if there was a market for e-books in a UK public library setting and to test the different available provider models.

The first steps in this process were to seek providers of suitable content, and platforms on which the content could be read. At that time (2003), although there had been a number of dedicated e-book reading devices on the market, they had all recently become obsolete. Consequently, it was decided to seek content that could be read on multi-purpose, generic devices such as a home computer or laptop. Two suppliers were identified, both from the USA, as having suitable material - Overdrive and ebrary.

The two suppliers differ in both content and method of delivery: ebrary provide a collection more suited to academic study, with simultaneous access for all library members, while Overdrive use a more traditional "one copy, one loan" model providing a large range of mainstream titles available for download.

Essex now also offer e-audio through Overdrive, whose material is also compatible with iPods and iPhones. This is attracting a new range of users, many of whom go on to use e-books as well.

Overdrive has also some community service features; Essex has not used this very much so far, although it has made one local writer‘s publication accessible via Overdrive to date.

Choice of title

As a result of the pilot study, evaluated independently by Loughborough University and the Laser Foundation, Essex decided to continue using both providers and to incorporate their services more permanently into the library offer. Despite the potential for confusion to users arising from the differences between providers, Essex believe that the benefits are clear. "It enables us to have a far greater selection of titles," said Martin Palmer of Essex Libraries.

About 2,500 people are regularly using Essex County Libraries Overdrive service, with another 50-100 people signing up each month; Ebrary sessions currently total around 750 per month.

E-books can be difficult to promote due to their invisibility, but the library publicises the service through its e-newsletter and each time the newsletter is sent there has been a noticeable spike in uptake. E-book titles have also been added to the general library catalogue so that they are accessible through general searches.

Stock selection for e-material is a developing skill, although for Ebrary this is done by the supplier; for Overdrive, the collection had to be built from scratch, and it became clear quite quickly that - apart from the obvious bestsellers - people tend to choose different kinds of books in the e-book format. Computing books have proved to be popular, but so have self-help and relationship counselling books as well. However, as the service matures, usage may become more rounded.

Essex has recently added further suppliers to its e-offer - Bloomsbury provide a range of titles accessible via a web browser, while W F Howes offer the "Clipper" range of audiobooks - and they expect to add additional suitable content as it becomes available, as demand is now growing significantly.

For more information on this case study, visit the case study section on the MLA research website

November 2009