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October 04, 2007
eMusic says no to DRM -and- Sarah's lesson on the importance of eResource statistics
eMusic has started offering over a thousand downloadable audio books without digital rights management. Available in plain MP3 format, you don't have to deal with any specific software, or digital rights management restrictions. Instead, you can access their music and audio books through a subscription model that costs less than $100/year or $9.99/month. Anyone can even get a two-week free trial where you get 25 free MP3 format songs and 1 free audiobook too. Wow! And even if you cancel, you get to keep those anyway because, uh, they're in MP3 and not in some nasty digital-rights-management laden format. Library-world downloadable media vendors need to sit up and take notice.
Hint to Library-world downloadable media vendors: Follow my logic here. We and our users have problems with the DRM in the systems we buy from you. You know this already, because we have told you. If our users continue to have problems, they'll stop using the product. If the users stop using the product, we ask for a price reduction -or- we stop buying the product.
That does presume, however, that libraries are looking at their usage statistics and thoughtfully considering them against the prices they are paying for the service.
Hint to Libraries: Please examine your online resource statistics. When you're shelling out thousands a pop, it wouldn't be too much of a burden to make sure those resources are actually being used. Right? :) You might be surprised that the resources your staff tell you they use all the time are actually the lowest-used in your collection...or what you think might be used, based on instinct, just isn't. At that point, you have to ask yourself why, and make adjustments in PR, staff training, staff promotion of the resources to the public, and look at the barriers to access on your website or the vendor's site. See if the numbers rise after making some changes, but give it at least 6 months - it will take time.
October 4, 2007 | Permalink
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We ALWAYS are looking at our are user stats. As a medical library our databases, journals, etc. are very very costly and every year I compile the statistics because I need to explain to my CEO why we need to shell out $12,000 for a certain database.
If the stats aren't there, the resource is cut and is replaced with something that has been frequently requested.
Posted by: Michelle | October 5, 2007
I have a feeling that libraries will always be stuck with DRM because the digital copy is usually destroyed when it needs to be returned to the library. We make DRM even messier that it normally is. Tinfoil Raccoon had an interesting discussion about database usage as well. I keep a running tally on all cost per click. When cost per click starts to rise, you have to ask if it is poor marketing or poor content.
Posted by: jeff | October 5, 2007
Poor online resources use can certainly be due to poor marketing or a poor product - I have seen both, to be sure. Though, on the other point about libraries always being stuck with DRM, I am not sure that will be true. Nothing else we own is saddled with such a restrictive system, and our users do (and we know they do) make copies of CDs, DVDs, etc....even books! And I'm sure that the companies who sell these to us know that too. So...what to do about digital content? I have a feeling that eventually, eventually mind you, we will see DRM-free content but people who distribute said content in mass numbers through systems like Limewire or Kazaa will get nailed. Those who find and download the content "illegally" will be in the hot seat to a lesser extent. But individuals who "check out" a digital item from a library don't have to delete it, and if they wish can keep it forever...but with most items, they won' want to do that. Only with music and maybe video content. All of this is in my humble and uneducated opinion of course...
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | October 6, 2007
What do you do when you suspect your vendor may be inflating the stats? I get stats from a vendor regarding in-library use of a database that would make it one of the top-used electronic resources in our library. But I've never, ever, seen a patron use it or had one ask about it. Staff rarely uses it. Hmmmm. I'd think with the high usage someone would need help searching...or at least printing!
Posted by: ChiLibrarian | October 6, 2007
ChiLibrarian: Good question. Personally, I would confront the vendor with that information. I may also try to corroborate similar experiences from other libraries, and ask that they all come together to ask the vendor to check their methods. I would ask that the vendor be COUNTER-complaint (see their website for more information, http://www.projectcounter.org/code_practice.html). All eResource vendors should be COUNTER compliant. I know that Thomson Gale is, and am thankful for that. Other vendors should do the same. Librarians really need to get together to lobby for this, so that we do have comparable statistics to use for collection development.
Posted by: Sarah Houghton-Jan (LiB) | October 7, 2007
I am a library user, not a librarian, and my own personal experiences with DRMed music/audiobooks have been unpleasant; because I'm a Mac user, I can't access all the digital download services offered by my local library (Sacramento), despite paying the same taxes as everyone else and supporting the library much more than most do (new book donations, Friends of the Library membership, etc). I hate the fact that people must agree to install a closed-for-true-open-source-development platform like Windows, giving more money to Microsoft, just to have access to these services. Personally, I feel like if my library can't accommodate everyone, they should stop offering this service.
Posted by: jlt | October 9, 2007
