Ebooks: my past, present and future

This is a chronicle of how I came to make my first presentation outside work and what happened when I did. It was for JIBS, now called SERIF, at their event on the 26th of February all about the future of ebooks.

First, the day; I'll start with the most interesting part and you can choose to read on if you're interested in my history with ebooks. You may have read my articles in CILIP Update already, but I've included them here in case. I'm not a comfortable speaker at the best of times, my brain goes too fast for my mouth and I'm much more articulate writing, but I do teaching sessions as part of my job, so it wasn't new to me and my presentation went as well as could be. I had my power dress on, the one I always wear if I can when teaching; it makes me feel confident. I don't like London and taking public transport, though I love trains, but everything went swimmingly, couldn't have gone better, that goes for everything all day. The venue was the UCL's Student Venue and it's a great place, with a swimming pool, bar and a library that's like no library I've ever been to with music and a table football table. I had a bad cold, one that had been lingering for weeks and I was worried my voice wasn't going to last the day, living off Airwaves so I could breathe and Strepsils so I could swallow without pain and to save my voice. I needn't have worried, though I was quite croaky on the way home, debriefing with Jayne, the ebooks administrator who came with me and who runs ebooks@cambridge.

There were talks from two publishers and two information professionals providing etextbooks and then there was me. I had severe imposter syndrome as Nic, the first publisher, has been working with ebooks for a long time and showed us the history of ebooks; Liz, the second publisher, really got down into the specifics of ebooks and how to create them; the two information professionals talked about how they're delivering etextbooks, Tif in a very assertive way working with the publishers and Catherine from the project perspective. Much of what I was going to say was covered by Tif and Catherine, but I told myself that I was coming from a different point of view and was going to say it in a different way, even if Catherine did use the same image as me on one of her slides (for the future, great minds think alike!) and Tif the same quote as the title of my dissertation. But as someone said to me, it's good to reiterate these things as it drives the point home and I certainly felt part of something at the end of the day; it's good to know everyone feels the same way about ebooks, it's comforting.

All the speakers were brilliant either in their content or delivery or both. You can see all the presentations on the JIBS website. Yes, I had the final slot of the day, but it was inspired as my presentation seemed to be a summary of all that had gone on before. My presentation is up on Slideshare, so you may want to look at it before you read on.

When I was asked to talk about the future of ebooks, I immediately thought about the past, I'm contrary like that. So I used history as my hook, my theme. It was basically a case study of our experiences, here at the Judge, but also as a university. The core ideas running through my presentation were: it's about choice, not forcing people to use ebooks but giving them the opportunity to use them as personally, I don't use ebooks but when forced to I have done as that was the only option available and I resented the fact I didn't have the choice as I'm a book lover, the feel of them, the scent of them, new books and old, and the look of them, but I know how useful they are to our students and value the importance of them in academia; that we're stuck in the present while also being in all time periods at once with ebooks: no ebooks, basic ebooks and ebooks tied to print; the unrealised potential of ebooks, this TED video from 2011 being a case in point. It's 5 years old now! I also had a little moan about things from us librarians' perspectives, from the publisher Pearson, the blame culture which persists us blaming publishers and publishers blaming us which doesn't get us anywhere and how we need to work together with publishers, between us and with faculty especially with reading lists, but overall about the lack of consistency.

So to my talk. It went by in a blur, but the moments leading up to it seemed to go on forever. My heart was pounding, my hands were sweaty and I couldn't remember what I was going to say. I suffer from anxiety, but I won't go into details as I've written about it in the past, on this blog too. Being the last person to speak on the day didn't help matters. For this reason, I had written prompt cards, but I didn't need them in the end. As soon as I saw my first slide, I was alright and all the symptoms faded into the background. Everyone laughed in the right places and got all the jokes, even the in-jokes I thought they wouldn't. There were nods of familiarity, they reacted to my questions and pauses for thought and even the slightly controversial bit I put in, deliberately in case no one was engaged, went over well. Some people even agreed with me that ebooks should cost more than print; Elizabeth, the JIBS chair, asked that exact question at the end to gauge opinion. My reasoning is that ebooks have more functions than print, and what I wanted to say, but didn't have time to, but someone helpfully commented afterwards, that some ebooks are the equivalent of more than one printed book, allowing more than one person to use them at a time so should be priced accordingly. So thank you, that man!

By far the most popular slide, as it was tweeted the most, was this one:

Jurassic ebooks

However the blue screen of death slide also got a good reaction, as well as the dark ages slide which was all black until the light bulbs appeared. I've made a Storify of my presentation, collating all the tweets about it.

There was a tea break straight after my talk and I had lot of people coming up to me, yes chatting to me and asking questions, but also to think at me. What I wanted to do and succeeded in doing beyond all my wildest expectations was to inspire and provoke thought, and judging by the stream of consciousness I provoked in quite a few people who wouldn't let me get in a word in edgeways even though they were talking to me, I definitely achieved that.

I wasn't nervous about the panel discussion at the end, mainly because there were other people with me who I could pass on to, and I did once as I didn't have anything to add to what had been said, agreed with the previous person and passed the microphone on! What surprised me, though it may have been just because I had done my talk just before, was that when answering the audience's questions, the other speakers referred back to what I said in my presentation, more than once. It was very gratifying and more than a little bit flattering. My imposter syndrome disappeared for good after that! The event ended and I was one of the last to leave because people still wanted to talk to me. I also got invited to do a presentation on ebooks for a CILIP event in Brighton, though I'm not sure anything will come of it, but it was nice to be asked. When I said I would have to think up another theme, she said there's no need, just do the exact same presentation! Like all events and conferences, it was a great networking opportunity.

Anyway, enough ego-boosting. Here is how I came to be mixed up in the crazy world of ebooks. I have been at my current job as an Information and Library Assistant at Cambridge Judge Business School, part of the University of Cambridge, for seven years now. In my first year, I was given the task by my manager of investigating an ebook platform: Dawsonera. I purchased a core collection of ebooks and have been administering them ever since. I quickly realised how important ebooks were for our students, allowing them access to the text when all the printed books were unavailable, but particularly for our distance learners. So when I did my library degree, it was only natural to write my dissertation on ebooks, which is now on academia.edu for you to read. I used a Stephen Fry quote as my title: "Books are no more threatened by Kindle, than stairs by elevators." Instead of concentrating on the user, I analysed the key people who ensure ebooks are used in the first place: suppliers, us librarians and faculty.

Rather than let all my research go to waste, I was urged to get it published. So I contacted CILIP Update and they were happy to publish it. The first one was made into a blog post, but I include all of the articles here. I want to thank Rachel Middleton, the editor of CILIP Update, who has allowed me to publish them freely on my blog and my LinkedIn page and commissioned the articles in the first place. Upon hearing my topic, she said it was too much for one article so we decided on a series of what became the four articles:

I have had a lot of good feedback about my articles as I tried to make them both entertaining and informative. Some of the comments I've had via email have mainly been about the quality of my writing, being an English graduate, a creative writer and an avid reader, I should hope so! "thank you for your succinct and well thought-out article...very readable and well-reasoned." There were some people who loved my geeky references: "it's a rare and treasured article in Update that has me laugh the smug laugh of the geek who got the reference." "The puns! The references! Your knowledge of and engagement with ebooks... this [article] proved to be a wonderful surprise with its humour and confidence." I believe in the power of the analogy as a good theme makes what you're saying more memorable and therefore it will sink in more. Twitter has been a great place for feedback too: "just read this article - lot of fun! (as well as informative). The force of ebooks has truly awoken." My favourite comment has to be this: "It was an invigorating read, and has made me want to learn more on the subject. Mission achieved." Off the back of those articles, I was asked to speak at the event. I didn't want to replicate the articles and simply present them, so I came up with a new theme. So that's you all up to date. A last word on ebooks, from Douglas Adams who arguably created the most famous ebook, albeit fictional:

I always think of this quote when dealing with a problem with ebooks as I believe ebooks were adopted too early; the technology wasn't ready yet, the suppliers weren't ready and we weren't ready to receive them. Now, what do you think?

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.