eBooks n' Audiobooks

By nature of the beast, this discussion couldn't be more timely.  Holy crap.
Our entire world has been turned upside down in the last month or so and I, for one, am running a completely different library than I was a month ago.  Namely, I'm pushing eBooks like it's my sole job, I've doubled the number of eResources that my library offers, and a TON of new, free downloadable services are now readily available.  Although this current need wasn't the primary message of our readings for the week, the emerging necessity of these mediums for our patrons is undeniable.  A bit behind the times due to my community's lack of tech-savvy (thus, their lack of interest in downloads), we only began offering Overdrive/Libby in December of 2019.  With the pandemic, we added Hoopla last week and are providing links to a number of other hands-off resources at this time.
Though an older article, Vinjamuri's "The Wrong War over eBooks: Publishers vs. Libraries," gave relevant points to both sides of the argument and did hit on the exponential growth that we're seeing regarding demand for downloadable resources.  What I found the most appalling about the article was publishers jacking up the price of those materials when they'll sell us the hardcover for a third of the price.  I can understand that they fear they're losing money on the deal, but I was so sideways about the belief that the focus wasn't on the right thing.  I do truly understand that it is a business and they are protecting their margins, that their mission is money and our mission focuses on equal-access, but I do feel that we have common ground on the core missions of providing art and culture and written creation to others.  I found it sad that the focus leaves that in the name of worrying about how many people got to see a piece and if we paid our fair share for it.  For that reason, the recommendation to pay for cost per circulation was something I felt good about.
My experience with patrons and the availability of eBooks and audiobooks is simple:

• less than 1% of my patrons expressed interest in eBooks and preferred the physical title to take home with them.  I don't mind that at all as I get the circulation numbers as well as the visits.  That said, the increased variety that offering eBooks through our consortium gives to us (given the fact that space is always an issue in our old Carnegie building) is well-worth the cost.  The cost to join the consortium and the large number of titles that we can now say we have access to is a great swing to the pendulum. Patrons, too, are coming around.  With the addition of some lendable Kindles to our collection, we are able to bridge the gap with those patrons that don't have their own reading device.
• audiobooks are a different story entirely.  In my 9 years at my library, I've only had 2 patrons that wanted audiobooks, making it difficult to want to spend my budget dollars there.  How do I know what titles to buy when I'm only serving 2 patrons AND the cost per item seems so much higher since I know they cost of the item = the cost of circulation? The availability of audiobooks through the download platforms we've added has been the biggest surprise of all.  Of the 77 circulations we saw last month on Overdrive, 65% of them were audiobooks, showing clearly that the need was there and the ability to download it to a personal device filled a need that buying books on CD wouldn't have. 

Finally, the points regarding audiobooks were the most fascinating to me. As a person who's never successfully completed an audiobook, who gets distracted and realizes she has no idea what she's listened to, who loves the book in her hand (where physical or on a Kindle), the readings were very helpful to getting a window into what patrons might want in this offering.  Particularly, the discussion on the performer.  Personally, I liked the idea of the writer being the reader, but so many great options exist.  It certainly would contribute to the enjoyment of the book and helping the text come to life for those people (who aren't like me) and don't "hear" the voices, nuances, accents as they're reading.  My reading experience always feels very real, but I know that's not true for everyone so I can see how the performance component would be very helpful.  On a personal note, the patron that is borrowing the most audiobook downloads at my library is listening to them as she works at the sewing factory. This allows her to "read" while being quite busy with her hands.  This advantage is amazing!  Maybe I should get on board.  Lastly, having audiobooks for youth isn't something that I've done much of, but I know that these are a great offering.  My grandma, mother, and sister all taught (teach) k-2.  Those kids LOVE to hear books and feel like they're reading along.  Though that isn't the age-group that I think about with download services, they are a key demographic to creating life-long readers.