Week Eleven Prompt Response

E-media and Appeal Factors

E-books allow us a great deal of ease and flexibility in our reading. When I hear of a new title I'm interested in, I see if it's available as an e-book first. It's easy to check the different e-book services available through each of my library cards to see if it's there for me to read. This has allowed me to read immediately a number of books I otherwise would not have been able to read or would have needed to wait a while before getting it. I've found that in those periods of time waiting for a print copy, I've sometimes become uninterested in the title I thought I was interested in before and don't end up reading it. For ease of use, it's hard to beat an e-book, especially since we can read them anywhere we have our devices, we don't have to worry about losing or damaging the book, and they return automatically.

All that being said, I do still prefer the feel and heft of a book in my hands. I like being able to see how much more of a book I have left just by glancing that way and judging whether I can get through it in time. Some print books are also formatted in ways that take advantage of page breaks and placement of text or images on the page, which oftentimes gets altered and possibly ruined by the reformatting of the text to the size of whatever screen we happen to be using. I've found I have more of an interesting trying to finish a print book than I do an e-book, possibly because I've gone to the trouble of actually finding it in a library or bookstore and carried it around with me (this does not alter my 100 pages or 1/4 book rule, though).

Audiobooks, both traditional (which now means on CD) and digital, are less of a problem for me as audio is audio regardless of the format. It's again easier to use the digital format of an audiobook if one has the equipment, but that can be said nowadays for CD books as well. I like the all-in-one aspect of e-audiobooks and how it takes up no space (physically) at all; I don't have to change out CDs every so often and keep track of which one I need to listen to next or carry them all around with me (remember selecting CDs for a road trip and making sure the CD wallet was stocked and ready to go?). But I also find the same thing with e-audiobooks as with e-books that I don't have the same sort of investment in them. If I don't get through an e-audiobook, it doesn't bother me as much as if I had not finished a set of CDs.

For readers advisory, it's all about matching the right title in the right format to the reader/listener. I recommend e-books all the time to the patrons who chat in with me as an option to getting the title they want as soon as possible, but sometimes it's just not the right fit. Some patrons don't have the equipment or the desire to deal with what they think is the hassle of digital media, but many of them simply prefer the feel of a book in their hands. These patrons seem to be older patrons, so it's possible with the advent of younger generations as the major drivers of media consumption that will change. However, many older patrons are turning to e-books and e-audiobooks for the very reason of ease of use, as well as that the text size for e-books can be changed to suit diminishing vision, or the speed of e-audiobooks can be changed to suit one's ears. After listening to audiobooks for a living for twelve years, I can listen to narration at higher speeds than most others, but not at the speeds many blind patrons can! The varying speed option is a consideration for many patrons we should be able to mention. Those without the ability to hold a book in their hands for long periods of time benefit greatly from e-books they can simply prop up via a tablet or phone case or stand.

An aspect we do have to consider is how do we get digital media in the hands of those who don't have the ability to use them? So many of use have smart phones and other mobile devices we don't think of those who do not, so the recommendation for someone to use an e-book when they don't have a device doesn't work. There are, of course, such things as playaways that come pre-loaded with digital content on a tablet-like device. Playaways are certainly options to expose patrons to digital media, but those can be expensive and less-flexible options; once the content is loaded, it's there and can't be easily swapped out. And if a patron loses or damages the playaway, much like with a print book, it then is unusable for another patron until it's replaced and a playaway is not as easily or as quickly replaced as print copies. E-books and e-audiobooks don't have these problems.

So the answer, as with print and traditional audio, is to do our jobs and do a thorough (or as thorough as we can) reader's advisory to determine if our patron is interested in digital media or has the ability to use them, without assuming they can and certainly not being disappointed if they don't!