eBooks - Absolutely Fabulous?

In looking at my notes about the CILIP eBooks executive briefing last week, #ebooks11 on Twitter with some awesome tweeters, I figured, instead of going through them and rewriting them, I may as well do a blog post!

The CILIP Executive Briefing on eBooks was basically a conference for librarians interested in eBooks, whether they already provide eBooks or not. The speakers' presentations were a mixture of case studies and current awareness, but all looked to the future and all highlighted the issues we still face when it comes to eBooks.

Surprisingly muscular Newton statue at the British Library on the way to CILIP

Those of you who haven't been to CILIP London, the mothership for librarians in the UK, before will be in the same boat as I was. Those who have, many a time, will read this and (hopefully) roll your eyes affectionately. I don't often go to London, despite living in Cambridge and therefore a maximum of an hour's train journey away. I don't like London, I suffer from a kind of culture shock every time I visit. So I was very grateful when I happened upon Jayne Kelly, @ebooksatcam on the train. We had both got to the station early, both decided to get the earlier train and both decided to sit in the same carriage. We also both wanted to walk from King's Cross to CILIP, thereby avoiding the tube. I decided this was fate. However having a familiar face at a conference is both a help and a hindrance; it gives you courage, but you do tend to stick together at the same time.

The day was seamlessly organised, with breaks just when you need them and a fabulous lunch. But enough about that, I'll get onto the important stuff now. eBooks are absolutely fabulous and absolutely frustrating in equal measure. Like Patsy from Absolutely Fabulous in fact. No, before I lose you, let me explain. eBooks seem brilliant at first, charming you with their flashy facade, modern ways and easy access; Patsy was for all intents and purposes, a bit of a floozy. However when you get to know them better, you realise how difficult they can be, how you can't actually take them everywhere you want to and how they aren't for everyone; Absolutely Fabulous loved putting Edina and Patsy in fish-out-of-water situations. How when it comes down to it, you would prefer a traditional Saffy, a printed book, after all. I don't know why I used that allegory, except for the fact I unintentionally wrote absolutely fabulous and decided to go with it.

The Ab Fab family

I didn't know what to expect at an executive briefing, but there was something for everyone: public, FE and HE libraries. Kate Price from the University of Surrey opened the conference with a brief introduction, introduced all the speakers and also did a stirling on the organisational side too. Her presentation was a general overview about the state of play, which I needn't go into here. Kate highlighted a few useful survey websites, student feedback surveys that help us to gauge the response to how well we are doing with our services: National Student Survey (NSS), Key Information Sets (KIS) and Student Barometer. Kate also mentioned device complexity, a common refrain throughout the day, culminating with James Clay's excellent presentation about mobile devices and eBooks.

Emma Walton, who showed no trace of being a last-minute replacement, then presented us with a case study from the University of Sussex library. Emma went through their eBook project right from inception to future plans.They use the scary PDA system: Patron Driven Acquisition *shudder* That would never work in our library; our budget would disappear in a week!

After each block of speakers, there was time for a Q&A session and then refreshments. James Clay from Gloucestershire College opened after the break with his aforementioned presentation about eBooks and mobile devices. His presentation consisted of him speaking and a Powerpoint with only pretty pictures. Very brave. It meant James stood out from the other speakers as it was more vibrant and entertaining, with good use of humour which always goes down well. James simply explained the issues with a plethora of examples of mobile devices, getting us to say how many we had with us at the time with the age-old stand up-sit down method. The record is 73! James stated that eBooks are not a replacement for printed books; it's about giving our patrons the choice. The part I found the most useful was about marketing eBooks, especially about QR codes. I even collared James later to get his advice. Another refrain during the day was trying to get academics and teachers involved, particularly with the reading list which is a major bugbear for all of us in FE and HE.

A bugbear

Poor Virginia Havergal from Bridgwater College had a hard act to follow, but it helped that she was lively, light and had case studies to back up her points about where eBooks are going in the future. It also helped that she showed us this truly amazing video from TED which shows us where eBooks are heading:

Martin Palmer from Essex County Council and Stephen Edwards from Hampshire Council Library Service had the hard time slot of after lunch. And unfortunately I was a bit dopey after the good food and because it wasn't relevant to me as I work in an HE library, I didn't pay as much attention. But from my notes, the presentation hand-out and from what I do remember, Martin tackled the device complexity issue, and the difference between downloads and online access in an informed and authoritative way; he had a great chart showing what works with which device which can be found on Wikipedia. In our experience, students want to either print or download eBooks rather than read them online, so device issues are very important to our students. Stephen, nobly battling a tickley throat, came from the publisher's perspective, explaining why there isn't a consensus among publishers and using current news to add impact, such as the recent statement from Penguin.

Lastly the publishers themselves spoke. Hannah Perrett from Cambridge University Press and Jude Norris from Dawson. Hannah's presentation was frank and honest and highlighted the problems with eBooks from not only the publisher's side, but the author's side too. Jude took us through how their eBook platform works and all the different subscriptions. We are already using Dawsonera, along with other platforms such as CUPs Cambridgebooksonline, the equivalent platform for OUP, MyiLibrary, the former NetLibrary now on EBSCO, ACLS and more. What I will take away from the day is a better sense of the eBook landscape, inspiration for our own eBook service and I have more ideas of how to use QR codes now and how to manage the different devices and eBook platforms.

At the end there was a panel discussion with sweeping questions, such as: where do you see ebooks in 10 years time? From there in a rambling conversation kind of way, we somehow got to: what do you think the role of librarians will be in the future? Such questions were a great way to end such a thought-provoking, informative and inspiring day.