Week 10 Prompt

 I am going to be honest and say that until the pandemic I rarely used ebooks or audiobooks. Now I am obsessed with them and they are almost all I read. I feel ashamed for being a snob about disliking them before. When we all got told we had to stay home I loaded up on books thinking I'd have free time to read and fly through them. I had so much going on with work that I barely had time to sit down at night. That is when my husband, avid ebook and audiobook user, convinced me to try audiobooks on Libby or Hoopla. He has always loved Libby and does our Overdrive purchases for the library. He has tried talking to me about the trends he sees from requests for ebooks and audiobooks but I never thought about trying them myself. I'd used Hoopla for graphic novels but I was never into using the online apps. I ended up going through some series in no time and now I get other people to try them out by telling them my story. 

I always valued the touch and feel of a book. It helped draw me into the story seeing the cover, how big or small the book was, if it was worn from use, etc. Now I look more at descriptions and less at what the covers look like. It's less about judging the cover for appeal and more about seeing if the description appeals to me. 

I also really like that I can sit down with a patron who is against ebooks because they say they are too old and cannot see the screen and see them get excited about being able to read a new author that was not in our physical collection. I am in charge of fielding our patron questions and I became pretty good at explaining through email and over the phone how to download and use library apps. I think that helped me appreciate them more. 

Okay, audiobooks are both my favorite and least favorite format. I started listening to them when I was working from home so I would not get distracted. I got so much more work done and learned that some of my favorite children's authors need new narrators (I love kid books and wanted to feel calm during the pandemic). I learned why I had such disdain for them since I was introduced to them as a child and that would be the horrible narrators. I think with audiobooks the narrators make or break the feel and pleasure a patron gets from a book. I cannot stand when the person is just using one voice for every character in the book or when their voice is so soothing I want to fall asleep. I want to be drawn into the book like I would if I were reading the pages. I think with audiobooks if someone does not like the narrator then the publishing company has lost a sale or reader. 

So, all this being said I am going to tell you about what I did this weekend without realizing we were talking about ebooks and audiobooks this week. My husband and I sat my mother-in-law down and taught her the value of digital formats for books and audiobooks. She works a lot and does not have the time to always go into the library when the library is open. We have told her about the apps before but she seemed skeptical because she is not a fan of technology. We got her the Libby app with her library card and we took turns showing her cool things she can do to customize the books she's reading. She's notorious for saying she needs her glasses but not actually getting them to look at things. My husband used this to his advantage and showed her that she can change the font size. We also showed her how to place holds, see the different formats, and how to browse by subjects, authors, genres, etc. She left our house saying she was going to look at a few authors she had not read in a while. I think we converted her!

With this story and patrons I have helped throughout the years I have learned a few differences in how people choose books inside a library compared to on an app. Here are the ways people pick books or see as a positive when checking out ebooks and audiobooks:

1. If the narrator is horrible just try a different book or try to read the ebook. The draw factor for audiobooks are how the story is told and if it is a genre the patron enjoys. A narrator can change the entire tone of a book with their voice. Patrons find narrators they enjoy and that can cause them to go out of their comfort zone and try new genres if the narrator is so good they want to hear more from them.
2. Judging books by their covers is not as important because the covers don't have as much pull for me or some patrons when "browsing the stacks" online. The descriptions get people to read the books over anything else.
3. How libraries customize their homepages for apps is key. In Libby and Overdrive libraries can curate collections to feature and try to draw patrons into checking out books. This is a new way patrons can find books through passive readers' advisory. Libraries had to find new ways to get popular and new books to their patrons without blowing budgets last year. I think curated collections helped librarians showcase some books that were already there and get patrons interested in new authors and titles that could be new or old. 
4. How the book looks does not really matter. Font, color, covers, etc. do not play a big factor because they can be made to look however the reader wants them to look. Don't like the stark white background then change it to nighttime mode. Cannot read the text because it is too small then change the font size and even the type of font. 
5. The tone can change with audiobooks based on speed. I learned this when I decided to quicken the pace of a book and it made the story seem off. I try to stick to the pace the publishing company sets but with audiobooks it is the narrator's job to make sure they make the pace and tone known through their voice. We are not reading the words on the page so we have to rely on the narrator to do this for us.
6. Music in the background or between chapters can be useful. I know my sister loved it growing up because she knew when she could take a break from reading. It also can help with the growing anticipation of a cliff hanger ending.
7. A big appeal for patrons and myself with Hoopla's online materials is that I can get them instantly. I can essentially skip waiting lists and if I find a series I can read it all as quickly or slowly as I want. This is a big factor for many patrons I talk to when they decide what format of book they want to read.
8. One of the biggest appeal factors our library had for promoting ebooks and audiobooks before we got rid of fines for most of our materials was the lack of fines for online resources. People did not have to worry about getting the book back to the library on time or about there being a waitlist and being rejected their renewal. No fines and no driving has increased our registrations in my generation. We like doing things on our phones and from our homes. It's also a positive for some of our patrons who had to transition to assisted living and cannot always rely on getting transportation to the library. They have gotten ereaders and we've taught them how to use our apps. 

Here are some things I have noticed about ebooks and audiobooks that are not so appealing to libraries:

1. If it is online you don't own it permanently. I remember the collection development librarians for a couple departments talking about how it is getting harder for them to get multiple copies or order more than the requests because of the price to renew or rent popular authors. When the pandemic hit we had to think about how we wanted to allocate our funding. We have always had a steady flow of patrons use our print collection. Now we are seeing a trend of more and more patrons only using our online databases to check out materials. 
2. Audiobooks that are in CD form are declining because people prefer downloading them on their own devices. It is easier to whip out our smartphones than to get a CD player and hope the disc isn't scratched.

Appeals of physical materials:

I cannot remember where my friend found an image but it was all about what makes print books great and appealing to readers: the feel of the book, the cover, the smell, what color the pages are, and the descriptions. All these factors draw readers in. Physical books tell a story. You can tell if an older book was well received if it looks a little worn or the pages have colored from age. You can also tell when browsing the stacks what is popular if there is no dust in an area. Publishers take authors' names into consideration when publishing a new book. They also look at the appeal of a book cover or how it will fit into the genre for that time period.

One drawback to physical materials where ebooks and online audiobooks will always win is how much space they take up. Working in a smaller library has made me realize the value of being able to weed out some books in the physical collection while making sure to have copies of the books through online avenues. This has really helped the library I work at with graphic novels. They do not get as much attention in-house as they do online because the audience in our community prefers to use apps to checkout books.

                

All this being said, I love all types of books. I guess I can say a positive came out of last year for me. I learned to get over my disdain of using my phone or computer to read.