People will soon be able to buy e-books through the Ottawa Public Library.
A decision by the Ottawa Public Library board that would see it start selling e-books won’t put it in competition with the city’s independent bookstores, says Jennifer Stirling, system wide services and innovation manager at the library.
Instead, the library plans to work with publishers and independent or specialty bookstores by giving consumers the option of purchasing e-books directly from bookstores’ websites.
“Part of the negotiations with publishers is to prove that we’re working together. It’s also to provide an alternate revenue stream for the library,” says Stirling.
She says the initiative could be a good opportunity for local book shops to get involved with the library’s new venture.
The library was reacting to a huge rise in its e-book usage. In 2012, 429,000 e-books were circulated by library users, up from 223,000 the year before.
Sterling says once the e-book purchasing button is live on the library’s website, the library is looking into the possibility that the customer will have the option of buying the e-book from a independent bookstore, via a link to its website from the library’s website.
“People could choose between a local bookstore and another type of bookstore, as long as it meets the criteria and has the ability to provide the service,” she says of the proposed service.
“Our website gets up to 95,000 hits per month . . . so I think the exposure to that would be very good . . . if they (the bookstores) have the technical infrastructure.”
Doug Sprunt, of Salem Storehouse a specialty religious bookstore on Merivale Road, is apprehensive about the plan.
He says the initiative is questionable as most local, independent bookstores don’t have e-book facilities and it’s mostly larger national chains like Chapters that do.
Sprunt says similar initiatives have been attempted in bookstores, but haven’t been successful.
He says he looked into setting up an e-bookstore for Salem Storehouse, but the program would cost $10,000 and the store would make just 50 cents profit on each book sold.
“I couldn’t even imagine how many you’d have to sell online and why would you come to a store to buy an e-book when most people just do it all on the Internet,” he says of the library's proposed project.
Peter Dawson, of independent bookstore Books on Beechwood, located on Beechwood Avenue, agrees that the board’s decision isn’t a positive move for the local bookstore industry.
“To sell any kind of book is not competition that I like,” he says. “It’s the public government competing with private industry.
Michael Deyell, owner of specialty gay and lesbian bookstore After Stonewall on Bank Street, says he is unsure about the proposal and whether e-books have any relevance to his customers.
“I’m not too sure what to say about it. All I know is that we have a loyal clientele; a lot of them like holding a book in their hands.”
“Personally, one of the reasons I bought After Stonewall is because I am an avid reader. I’m not sure if I’ll ever incorporate them into the business,” Deyell says.
But he acknowledges the undeniable impact that e-books and the Internet are having.
“I know things like Amazon have really hurt a lot of independent bookstores, and a lot have closed because of this and people downloading books, and I think it could start hurting a lot of bookstores if other businesses were to do that,” Deyell says.
The library board’s meeting in February voted in favour of installing a ‘buy’ button to the library’s website, allowing consumers to purchase e-books from the library.
The system is still being formulated with publishers, but library administrators expect the plan to be implemented by no later than the middle of the year.