BEA 2010: Day of Dialog Panel on Blio and Copia Ebooks
Publishers still must be convinced that econtent in libraries is not a threat
Anna Katterjohn -- Library Journal, 05/25/2010
- ILS integration
- Publishers remain skeptical
- Will Blio and Copia become partners?
Before they got to the big and unresolved question—can these new platforms, not yet in libraries, bring large amounts of new econtent?—Copia vice president Sol Rosenberg and Baker & Taylor’s George Coe (president, library & education division) and Michael Bills (director, sales and digital products) described how the platforms offer enhanced ebooks, opportunities for annotation, and device agnosticism.
(Copia stresses social networking, Blio the presentation of images. For more on the platforms, see Josh Hadro’s “In Front of (E)Readers.”)
Role of libraries?
Halfway through the panel, Caron and Platt asked the question much of the public librarian audience was likely wondering: Where do we come in?
Caron suggested that the currently popular digital book vendors OverDrive and NetLibrary lack depth in content. However, in what would become a theme of the morning, Coe and Rosenberg responded by citing challenges they face in convincing some publishers that econtent in libraries is not a threat.
Prompted by Platt, Rosenberg discussed Copia’s interest in making discoverability via a library as good as the consumer experience. Coe explained Blio’s plans for ILS integration, which would allow patrons to buy and “rent” books from the same site, a branded extension of a catalog.
Pricing and fees
Blio software is free for consumers to download, Caron pointed out; will libraries pay fees akin to OverDrive’s annual hosting and site construction fees? Bills said Blio aimed to keep costs low rather than build a new platform for each library.
Again noting the need to consider publishers’ revenue streams, Bills said, “It’s difficult to crystal ball all of this, but everyone sees the train coming down the track and is willing to experiment.” Coe reiterated, “[Publishers] need to gain the confidence that we will manage their content and we’re not looking at the music business all over again.”
Future partnership?
Finally, after an audience question about how Blio and Copia could coexist or interact, Rosenberg and Coe underscored the products’ differences. For example, Blio will allow patrons to move content they download from the library to five different devices, while Copia plans to address migration issues so content is not lost as formats change.
However, their convivial exchanges left hints that future relationships may be in the works.
