Usage and Challenges of E-Books & E-Readers in Southeast Asia: A Current Snapshot of the Issue

Transcription

1 ALA 2014 International Papers Program Usage and Challenges of E-Books & E-Readers in Southeast Asia: A Current Snapshot of the Issue Grace Sim (Singapore) Ai Cheng Tay (Singapore) Ida Priyanto (Indonesia) John Hickok (USA) View paper at:

2 INTRODUCTION This paper is being presented by a team of Southeast Asian librarians (+ one U.S. librarian) for a multi-faceted approach to the theme. Southeast Asia stands as a timely and relevant case study of E-book & E-reader usage, since much of Southeast Asia is still developing.

3 INTRODUCTION E-books/E-readers in Singapore.strategies for proceeding Philippines..economic disparities Malaysia urban vs. rural challenges Thailand e-book shared networks Indonesia.language content challenges

4 SINGAPORE

5 SINGAPORE Land area: sq km Total Population: 5.4 million Ethnic composition: Chinese (74.2%), Malays (13.3%), Indians (9.2%), Eurasians and Asians of different origins (3.3%)

6 SINGAPORE 85% of households have home computer access 84% of households have access to broadband 91% of residents have access to the Internet at any location 65% of Singapore residents aged 7 years and above use a smartphone

7 SINGAPORE Ebook Market in Singapore ebooks sold in Singapore are typically priced almost the same as their physical equivalents Several major international ebook retailers such as Amazon do not sell their ebook content or ereaders in Singapore Very few ebook stores

8 SINGAPORE ilovebooks.com shut down in May last year due to...due to tough market conditions. Skoob stopped sales of digital books in Sep and shut down entirely on Nov 5 last year.

9 SINGAPORE Accessibility Usability ebook Adoption Availability Desirability

10 SINGAPORE Promises & Challenges: Accessibility and Usability Easy to carry around Check out, download and return books anytime, anywhere Save space No more fines Built-in features

11 SINGAPORE Promises & Challenges Accessibility and Usability Applies only to those who have gone through the arduous steps of setting up the multiple accounts required to download an ebook E.g. To download a book for the first time on the Overdrive platform, one must : Download the Overdrive app and set it up to access the NLB digital library Log in to the NLB account Set up and activate the Adobe account for DRM Mitigated through Loaning of ereaders and tablets for trial usage Continuous user education (e.g. workshops)

12 SINGAPORE Promises & Challenges Availability Availability of good contents remains a hurdle for NLB Limitations imposed by major publishers Metered access titles (E.g. 26 circulation limit by HarperCollins) Differences in the availability of ebook titles across national boundaries Lack of wide adoption for other languages Limited contents available for mother tongue languages Lack of local contents

13 SINGAPORE Promises & Challenges Desirability Although modern ebooks allow conveniences such as font size adjustment, not all printed texts render well Some publishers have harnessed the interactivity in electronic devices to deliver new reading experiences Typically found in app-based books Form a small percentage of ebook publishing Often do not have a platform that allows library lending

14 SINGAPORE Loan of edevices: In 2012, NLB started an edevice loan service with donated edevices from corporations. This service benefits those who do not have the means to own such devices. Enables them to access our ebooks and digital resources

15 SINGAPORE Loan of edevices: Loan of edevices was further expanded on 12 July ereaders donated by the US Embassy of Singapore Made available at 4 public libraries

16 SINGAPORE Loan of edevices: Loan period of 3 weeks edevices have either access to ebooks subscribed by NLB or are preloaded with e-content. Complimentary workshops on how to use the edevices are also organized as part of the loan service Basic functions Downloading of ebooks Encouraging to note that majority of the attendees were firsttime users to such technology

17 SINGAPORE

18 PHILIPPINES

19 PHILIPPINES E-books: Library Availability National Library

20 PHILIPPINES E-books: Library Availability Academic Libraries

21 PHILIPPINES E-books: Library Availability Public Libraries

22 PHILIPPINES E-books: Commercial Availability Booksellers

23 PHILIPPINES E-books: Library Availability Publishers

24 PHILIPPINES E-readers: Availability/Disparity

25 MALAYSIA

26 E-book Availability Commercial MALAYSIA

27 E-books Availability Libraries: academic MALAYSIA

28 E-books Availability Libraries: public MALAYSIA

29 E-readers: usage MALAYSIA

30 Urban vs. Rural MALAYSIA

31 THAILAND

32 THAILAND Commercial Availability E-books

33 THAILAND Commercial Availability E-readers

34 E-book Networks Public = TK Park THAILAND

35 E-book Networks Academic = ThaiLIS THAILAND

36 INDONESIA

37 INDONESIA Commercial Availability English e-books are distributed by agents/publishers Commercial E-books in Indonesian began quite recently

38 INDONESIA Commercial Availability E-readers are not popular in Indonesia E-reader applications attract users as they prefer to use gadgets for multi-purposes. Chinese tablets increase the ebook usage

39 INDONESIA Library Availability E-books mostly available in National and academic libraries Few public libraries starting their e-books and e-readers

40 INDONESIA Content (Language) Challenges - E-books in English is not a problem for university students - E-books in Indonesian has been initiated by elementary school e-books - More e-books in Indonesian are available with the presence of e-book publishers.

41 THANK YOU 谢谢 (Xie Xie) Salamat Terima kasih ขอขอบค ณค ณ (Kap Khun Krup) Terima kasih