Do Ebook readers encourage reading?

This past week, the Wall Street Journal pulled together information from a variety of sources on Ebook readers, and they found that people who purchased an Ereader (like a Kindle or Nook) said they were reading more than before they bought the device.

And Ereader owners were saying that they were reading A LOT more. Men in particular said they were reading more.

Amazon claims that Kindle owners buy 3.3 more books per person than non Kindle owners.

I have to wonder is this because it is so easy to buy a book for a Kindle? Shoot, all you have to do is a quick search and then push a button, and the book is yours. Right here, right now. Can't really get much easier than that. No schlepping into the car or heading out to the shopping center. Talk about impulse buying - you see something, you think it looks interesting, you push a button. Voila. Easy.

But do you really read more?

And if you do read more, does this mean that Ereaders will lead to a reading renaissance?

And I am still trying figure out what this will mean for libraries...

I'd love to hear what other Ereader owners think.

One Book, One Community programs

Over the past few years, HB Reads, a group of dedicated volunteers has sponsored annual One Book, One Community reading programs here in Huntington Beach. Last year's title, They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky, was an eye opening reading experience, connecting us to the horrors of genocide in Sudan.

HB Reads is already hard at work planning their next city-wide reading experience, and to get things going, they are sponsoring a Bookfair at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore at Bella Terra. From August 27 - 29, if you tell the cashier that you are participating in the Huntington Beach Reads One Book Bookfair when making a purchase HB Reads will get a percentage of the sales. The money raised through the Bookfair will help the committee purchase books for our local high schools, arrange for author visits and generally help get the reading program underway.

The title for the next HB Reads will be announced in September.

The Library is looking forward to another exciting and thought provoking community reading experience in Huntington Beach, with HB Reads.

Milkshake Mistakes?

As an owner of a Kindle, one of the features about the service from Amazon that I like is the opportunity to test or "sample" a book before I commit to buy it.

I was looking around on the Kindle site the other day and was looking at Clay Shirky's new book, Cognitive Surplus. I read parts of his earlier book, Here Comes Everybody, about social networking and the impact of social networking tools on how we organize. I had also heard his TED Talk awhile back and everything he said just seemed to make sense.

So I downloaded the first chapter of Cognitive Surplus, to give it a test drive. The chapter was just like his TED talk - interesting, enlightening and generally thought provoking. My favorite part was in his discussion about "Milkshake Mistakes".

He relates how McDonald's wanted to figure out how to improve sales of their milkshakes. They hired researchers to figure out how to do this. Most focused on the Milkshake - Did the Milkshakes need to be richer, creamier, etc.? Were they cold enough? Was the packaging needing an update or change? Only one researcher approached the subject in a different way - the researcher ignored the milkshakes, and focused on the customers who were buying them. He looked at when milkshakes were being purchased, who was purchasing them, etc. Instead of looking at just the milkshake, they looked at how people were using the milkshake. And they discovered something quite interesting when looking at the problem in this way - a lot of people were buying milkshakes early in the day, well before lunch time.

Why were they doing this? The people who were buying the milkshakes were commuters, they needed something quick, portable and something that could be handled with one hand, without making much of a mess. Low and behold, the Milkshake was meeting all of those needs. So, in essence, the commuters were "hiring" the milkshake to fill a particular job. A job that McDonalds hadn't really considered for the milkshake. So the question wasn't "how can we make the milkshake better?", it was "what job do people 'hire' the milkshake for?".

Shirky then talked about how these were essentially "milkshake mistakes" - we spend too much time looking at the "thing" aka the milkshake, without looking at what job the "thing" is being hired to do.

Libraries and librarians as a profession have spent a lot of time thinking about what we do and who we are. With all the recent talk on E-books, the death of print and the possible end of the physical book , I was wondering if perhaps we are focused too much on our "milkshake mistakes". We spend a lot of time looking at the library and the profession, but do we spend enough time asking "what job are we being "hired" to do"? What job is the library doing for people? Any thoughts? I'd love to hear what you think.

Thoughts on community, asset development and Library collections

Today, I was listening to a radio station podcast from the San Francisco Bay Area - the talk show host was asking "Do we need Libraries?" The response on the program was strongly in favor of libraries, which is always reassuring. But there were enough people calling in and saying things like "No, we don't really need libraries - they have obscure books," to make a professional librarian pause, and get just a tad worried.

Do we need libraries? I think the use of libraries across the country proves that we do. Libraries everywhere are seeing their use skyrocket, even when hours are reduced. The Huntington Beach Public Library just cleared the 1 million circulation mark this past year, showing a steady increase in use. And this is with reductions in hours.

Libraries are in the business of community asset development - I would argue that the greatest asset in any community is it's people. A community library helps build the capacity of the people in the community to participate in society and to make a difference. We help people learn, grown and succeed. Pretty important function if you ask me.

How do we do this asset development? Through programming, collections and service. We have educational programs for all ages. For example, our story time programs are amazing, filled to the max and each child in story time is learning the skills that will make a difference in their future success. Parents that bring their children to story time have the opportunity to connect with other parents, learn story telling skills and help foster the intellectual development of their children.

We also help encourage lifelong learning by creating library collections of materials that inform, educate, entertain and engage our library patrons. A good library collection encourages exploration, and can open your imagination to a whole new set of possibilities. In tough times, this is a vital function.

So the challenge for the profession becomes how do we keep providing the services that are needed, the way that our patrons need them, when times are tough and money is short? When things are tight, feelings get high, and conflicts emerge. Asking tough questions is part of this, and we all have to talk to each other. If we don't talk and engage, if we don't try and find common ground, then we do run the risk of not doing what needs to be done.

This turned into a much heavier and philosophical post than I originally intended, but hey that happens sometimes. I think we do need to have conversations about the library, why we need them, how we make a difference and how we can continue to do so when the economic situation looks so bleak.

I'd love to hear what you think...