A group of public libraries in Nova Scotia, Canada is no longer buying eBooks from Random House because of price increases from the publisher. Chief librarian Troy Myers said that the group would not buy eBooks from the publisher until they lowered their prices.

The South Shore Public Library explains the price increase in a press release: “… a copy of Catherine the Great, Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie was $30 for libraries in January 2012, $130 on March 1 and $85 on March 20. An individual ordering the same title would pay $25 through Amazon, $22.69 through Kindle or $20 through Random House or Google Books.”

However, the libraries cannot buy directly from retailers. Myers stated: “It would be great if we could just purchase ebooks through Amazon or Random House for the lower price. However because we provide the books for loan, we must purchase copies of the books through a service like OverDrive, instead of buying copies directly.” (Via Quill & Quire).

The American Library Association (ALA) is asking Random House to reconsider its decision to raise the prices of eBooks that it is selling to libraries.

In a press release, Molly Raphael, president of the ALA stated: “While I appreciate Random House’s engagement with libraries and its commitment to perpetual access. I am deeply disappointed in the severe escalation in ebook pricing reported today. Calling on our history together and our hope to satisfy mutual goals moving forward, the American Library Association strongly urges Random House to reconsider its decision. In a time of extreme financial constraint, a major price increase effectively curtails access for many libraries, and especially our communities that are hardest hit economically.” Read more

More than 59% of librarians use digital galleys to find titles for purchase for their library. This is according to a new report from NetGalley and the American Library Association, which surveyed 1,200 librarians which are also NetGalley users about how they use digital galleys.

While most librarians find out about books through the trade press, librarians also rely on direct publisher out reach, word of mouth and catalog browsing to find new titles. The report also found that 41% of librarians use digital galleys to find new titles to recommend to patrons.

More than 85% of the respondents said that they read digitally. Apple devices dominate librarians reading, followed by desktop computers, the Kindle, then Nook. Follow this link to see the complete study.

eBookNewser caught up with Tim Coates, the founder of the website Bilbary.com, a recommendation engine for eBooks that is in development, to discuss how to get books in the hands of readers in the digital era.

EBN: What are the challenges associated with getting equal access to books in an eBook era?

TC: Obviously eBooks are only available to people who have eReaders and who like using them. On the other hand print books have proved to be one of the most enduring and universal technologies. So for eBooks to be widely used there are a number of issues that have to improve. The eReaders need to be cheaper and become almost disposable. There has to be ten times more material available. Conversion from print to eBook has to become more efficient and inventive. The catalog of eBook publications needs to cover the whole range of in copyright and out of copyright editions. Rights percentages have to be resolved. The price to the customer has to reflect the price of production and distribution and not be related to the price of print  books.

Read more

Library Ideas LLC announced Monday that their new ebook service is now in beta at more than 50 libraries.

The new service, called Freading, is different from most of the competition. A number of library eBook services act just like they are selling paper books. A library can buy a copy and lend it out to one person at a time. Freading, on the other hand, acts more like a rental service. They charge the libraries per use. This lets the libraries lend as many copies of  title as they want, but it does tend to increase their costs.

Libraries currently using service include the Orange County Public Library System (FL), Edmonton Public Library (AL), L.E. Phillips Memorial Library (WI), Westport Public Library (CT) Edmonton Public Library (AB), and Paris Public Library (TX).

Patrons can check out eBooks and read them on Android and iOS apps. Title selection is still limited, and Library Ideas reports that they have signed over 40 publishers, including Sterling Publishing, Sourcebooks, Andrews McMeel and Regnery Publishing. They’re looking to add more names to that list in the near future.

The library ebook market just got little more interesting today. ebrary, a digital library provider, has just released its first app.

Library patrons can use the app to search for and download ebooks, copy and export citations, and import other docs. This app supports eBooks distributed by ebrary as well as PDFs and content from other sources including materials uploaded and integrated by librarians.

For the longest time, content from ebrary was only available on a computer. But over the past 6 months, ebrary has been polling librarians, students, and patrons in order to find out what services they needed most. Offline access was at the top of most request lists.  This led ebrary to offer eReader support as well as this new app.

iTunes

OverDrive has just released its activity  stats for the yer 2011, and they’re doing even better than some publishers. Twice as many people visited their digital library in 2011 as in 2010, and they viewed over 1.6 billion eBook listings.

Over 35 million titles were checked out in 2011, with another 17 million placed on hold. All this activity is drawn from the OverDrive catalog for libraries, which now includes 700 thousand copyrighted eBook, audiobook, and media titles in over 50 languages, with 300,000 titles added in 2011.

App users (Android, iOS, Windows) nearly doubled in 2011 (6 million to 11 million), and now account for 22% of all checkouts. The other 78% are spread cross a diverse group of devices, including the Sony Reader, Kindle, Nook, and others.

Unfortunately, I am not sure that OverDrive will have similar success in the coming year. Publishers re growing increasingly hostile to OverDrive. Only yesterday Penguin decided to stop distributing audiobooks to OD. Late last year Penguin also decided to withdraw their eBooks, and they were not the first. A couple other major publishers won’t allow library eBooks, either (Hatchette, S&S).

Time and time again, I hear from readers that they prefer print books because they like to support their local book stores and they like to check eBooks out from the library. Thankfully you can do both using your eReader.

Using Google Books, you can buy digital editions of eBooks from thousands of different indie bookstores around the country including Powell’s Books in Portland, OR and Word in Brooklyn, NY.

To help you figure out how to shop for digital books at your local indie bookstores, GalleyCat has put together a list of tips. “1. Check the massive list of Independent Bookstores Selling Google eBooks. Find the store you want to support. Follow the store link to shop for eBooks. 2. Download the Google eBook reading app for your device. 3. If you have an Android-based mobile phone or tablet device, you can also download theIndiebound Reader for Android to read or add to your collection.”

You can use the OverDrive app to check out books from your local library.

In this age of the giant eBookstores its important to make sure that local books don’t fall through the cracks.

Wheelers, a library and school book distributor based in Auckland, NZ, has recently expanded their ebook selection. In addition to eBooks from most major publishers, they now stock 400 eBooks originally written and published in new Zealand. The eBooks were converted as part of Great New Zealand eBooks, an initiative  sponsored by an NZ based copyright group, Copyright Licensing.

Copyright Licensing CEO Paula Browning had previously told NBR.

“We know that New Zealanders like to “buy New Zealand made” and the Wheelers system will ensure that the retail market for ebooks generates a return to a New Zealand company as well as to New Zealand authors and publishers,” said Copyright Licensing CEO Paula Browning.

Wheelers is one of the larger book distributors down under, and they recently expanded into eBooks.  Their ePlatform uses Adobe DE DRM and it supports all major eReaders (except for the Kindle).

Wheelers managing director Paul du Temple was pleased to be able to offer local content. Wheelers had previously found it difficult to get New Zealand content as eBooks. “It’s all very very new, so there’s a lot of publishers who are only just starting to digitise their titles…to have a really strong diverse collection like this become available in one go is exciting.”

Great New Zealand eBooks is currently negotiating with Google and Apple, and in the long run they plan to distribute eBooks to all major eBookstores.

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Digital book distributor OverDrive has released its list of the most downloaded books from the library for the month of November.

We’ve added the list of the most popular adult fiction downloads globally, on the left. As you can see, it includes titles by John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and Kathryn Stockett.

The OverDrive blog has more about what was popular in the U.S. It explains: “In the United States, Janet Evanovich’s latest, Explosive Eighteen, blew up the Most Downloaded list as the No. 1 downloaded audiobook, while The Hunger Games and Inheritance took home the top spots for Juvenile Audiobooks and eBooks, respectively. Also frequently downloaded in November were Ally Condie’s Matched (on the strength of the release ofCrossed, next in the trilogy) and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (due to the film tie in). Both of these titles performed well in both eBook and audiobook format.”

Follow this link to check out the most popular downloads by category and location.