Like someone else’s kid that you only see once in awhile, Amazon’s ebook library is shockingly larger every time you look at it.  As of this writing, there are now 151,636 titles in the list of ebooks in Amazon’s Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Amazon’s library was born on November 3, 2011 and was the runt of the ebook library litter with only around 5,000 ebooks in it.  At the time, most ebook libraries had far more titles that that in their collections.  But the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library had good genes and a strong appetite.

Amazon fed their baby well and in just 96 days, the library had grown to contain over 100,000 ebooks.  It dwarfed all the other ebook libraries before it was even one month old.  The New York Public Library and its 26,466 ebooks looks like a baby compared to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

But just like all babies as they get bigger, Amazon’s library appears to be growing a little bit slower as it ages.  A little over 50,000 ebooks were added in the 95 days since the library cracked 100,000 titles.  Almost 500 ebooks added a day is still very impressive, but it is definitely slower than the 1,000 ebooks that Amazon was adding a day before it hit 100,000 titles.

One reason for the slower growth rate is that Amazon appears to be a lot more concerned about the quality of ebooks that it lets into its lending library.  Amazon actually crossed the 150,000 ebooks mark last Thursday, but if you checked the library on Sunday there were less than 150,000 titles.  They had trimmed some of the ebooks between Thursday and Sunday of last week.  This definitely shows that they are filtering out titles periodically from the library.

Another example of this quest for quality is the recent addition of the Harry Potter ebook series to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  Amazon claims multiple current and former New York Times Bestsellers in the program, but the Harry Potter deal brings the most popular book series ever into the library.

The Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is barely six months old and it already has more ebooks that many popular public libraries combined.  We can only imagine what it will look like once it’s all grown up.

Great news for Harry Potter fans that own a Kindle and were thinking about buying digital versions of the treasured series by J.K. Rowling.  Amazon announced today that all seven Harry Potter ebooks will be available in the Kindle Owners’ Lendling Library on June 19th.

So you will be able to borrow the Harry Potter ebooks for free if you own a Kindle and you subscribe to Amazon Prime.  The Amazon Prime subscription currently costs $79 per year.  It lets you borrow one ebook for free each month and currently has over 145,000 ebooks to choose from.  Prime also gives you access to a large library of streaming videos that you can watch for free as well as free two-day shipping on products Amazon sells.

Adding the Harry Potter ebooks to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a huge win for Amazon.  Harry Potter is the best selling series of all time.  The announcement shines a huge light on the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  People will want to find out what it is and will wonder what other great ebooks they could get for free if they join.  Having the Harry Potter ebooks available for free to Kindle owners with Prime subscriptions will probably result in more Kindle sales and more Prime subscriptions as well.

The deal will drastically benefit Amazon but it will probably help J.K. Rowling out too.  If you borrow a Harry Potter ebook from Amazon and decide you want to buy it you will be redirected to Pottermore.  Pottermore is a website that J.K. Rowling has chosen as the only place where the Harry Potter ebooks will be sold.  The is “a unique online experience from J.K. Rowling, built around the Harry Potter books.”.  Having the Harry Potter ebooks in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library will definitely make more people aware of Rowling’s Pottermore site.

Of course if you want to borrow the Harry Potter ebooks for free there is another way.  J.K. Rowling decided to make the Harry Potter ebooks available at libraries through OverDrive.  This is unusual because most book publishers have chosen to not to make their ebooks available at public libraries.  So there is a good chance you will find the Harry Potter ebooks at your local library and you won’t need a Kindle to be able to borrow them.

Signing a deal to add the Harry Potter ebooks to the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library is a gigantic win for Amazon and the ebook subscription model.  It will be interesting to see if Amazon is able to get ebooks from other popular authors into their “library” as well.

Florida libraries are used to seeing hot weather, but there is something too hot for even them to handle.

The Brevard County Public Libraries system in Florida decided to pull “Fifty Shades of Grey” from their shelves last week according to The Palm Beach Post.  It’s an erotic novel that heavily features BDSM.  The title has been the top-selling ebook everywhere for quite awhile.

Cathy Schweinsberg, Library Services Director, said that the book was pulled because “it doesn’t meet our selection criteria”.  Apparently, they had purchased several copies but didn’t realize what it was until the press started referring to the book as “mommy porn”.  Schweinsberg said they removed it because they “don’t collect porn”.

“Fifty Shades” has gotten all sorts of media attention since it hit the best sellers charts.  It’s unique because it is the first time that an erotic novel has been able to become a best seller.  It’s even more unusual because virtually all the readers of the book are women.

The book shines a light on the incredible challenge that librarians face in trying to handle the issue of censorship.  Librarians have a very difficult job already in being tasked to build a valuable collection that appeals to their patrons.  It makes it even more difficult when they have to decide if material is appropriate for all their patrons.

Libraries solve this problem in different ways, but usually they choose to not get involved in censorship.  They side with freedom on speech.  Some libraries want to be so sure that they are not censoring content that they will even allow porn on library computers.

Deciding to carry “Fifty Shades” is quite different than deciding to allow porn on your computers.  Little kids that are walking by a computer screen and that are exposed to porn is much more damaging than having “Fifty Shades” on a shelf.

Libraries usually choose whatever content they want to offer to their patrons.  Some offer pornographic magazines while others choose to avoid anything pornographic.  Some allow porn on their computers and others strongly filter all porn.

For most libraries, the decision to offer porn is not a black or white decision.  It’s usually a shade of grey.

Microsoft just guaranteed that there will be at least three major ereaders for the forseeable future.  Today they announced a $300 million investment into a new subsidiary of Barnes & Noble that will include the Nook business and the college business of B&N.

This was a deal that both companies needed to do.  Barnes & Noble was looking to spin off or sell the Nook business because they felt it needed heavy investment to succeed.  Microsoft desperately needed a success for their mobile operating system as they are extremely late to the smartphone and tablet game.

The deal almost guarantees that we will be seeing a Nook Tablet running Microsoft Windows 8 instead of Google Android in the near future.  The Nook Tablet is one of only two tablets (the other being the Kindle Fire) that has had any success going up against Apple’s iPad.

Microsoft will be able to include all the Nook Tablet sales in their sales statistics if they can replace Android with Windows 8 on the Nook Tablet.  This will allow them to boast that Windows 8 is a success on tablets.

It’s interesting that the college business of Barnes & Noble is going to be included in the Nook subsidiary.  This is probably a response to Apple’s digital textbooks for iPad.  This will allow the Nook Tablet to continue to go toe-to-toe against the iPad in etextbooks.

The partnership will also allow all the ebooks that are currently available for the Nook to be available on any other Windows 8 tablet.  Microsoft will be able to launch its Windows 8 tablets with an ebook offering that is comparable to Amazon and Apple’s offerings.  This is a huge win for Microsoft.

A side effect of the deal is that it will probably mean that the Barnes & Noble physical stores will follow in the footsteps of Borders a bit faster.  B&N stores struggled last year even with fewer physical competitors.  Spinning off Nook removes the only bright spot of growth that B&N had to offer.  The remaining B&N business will look very similar to what Borders looked like right before they went out of business.

It will take time to see if the Microsoft investment in Nook ends up being a success.  What is clear for libraries is that library patrons will continue to ask for ebooks for at least three different ereaders for the forseeable future.

It feels like we’ve seen this show before.  Media companies offering content with utterly frustrating digital rights management (DRM) to keep their content from being pirated.  People that want to pirate their content figure out a way to pirate it anyway.  Their customers end up being the only ones affected by DRM so the media companies decide to offer their content without DRM.

You’d think we’re talking about the music companies, but we’re actually talking about the book publishers and ebooks.  Big six book publisher Macmillan is the first major book publisher to take the plunge into DRM-free ebooks.  Tom Doherty Associates, part of Macmillan, announced that the Tor, Forge, Orb, Starscape, and Tor Teen ebooks will all be offered DRM-free beginning in July of this year.

Macmillan decided to make the move because their  customers were constantly complaining that they couldn’t use the content that they legally purchased on all their devices.  DRM on ebooks makes it very difficult to copy an ebook to a different device or to use a different ereader.

Macmillan decided to offer DRM-free ebooks of only their sci-fi and fantasy titles.  They are definitely testing the water to see what impact this might have on their sales.  If history ends up repeating itself they will eventually publish all of their ebooks without DRM and then the other book publishers will follow.  This is exactly what happened with the music industry so it makes sense that it will happen with ebooks.

Unfortunately, this will not solve the problems of platform specific ebooks.  You currently cannot purchase an ebook for a Kindle and read it on a Nook.  The major ereader manufacturers have chosen to use their own proprietary formats which make ebooks incompatible with other ereaders.  Making ebooks DRM-free will not solve this problem.

Also, libraries will still have to struggle with DRM on the ebooks that they are allowed to loan out.  OverDrive uses DRM on the ebooks that it lets libraries loan out so that it is more difficult to pirate them.  Book publishers selling DRM-free ebooks will not change this.

Ebook fans can finally rejoice now that ebooks will be DRM-free.  Now if only we can get Amazon, Apple, and Barnes & Noble to make it so that you can buy your ebook once and read it on any ereader.

LexisNexis today launched the LexisNexis Digital Library.  The LexisNexis Digital Library is an ebook lending solution that allows organizations to loan out copies of primary law, deskbooks, legal code books, and treatises.

LexisNexis partnered with OverDrive to offer the lending solution.  It will function similar the customized ebook lending sites that OverDrive has setup for public libraries.

Organizations that subscribe to the service will be able to build an ebooks library where users will be able to visit a customized site and borrow copies of ebooks that the organization has chosen to offer.  The organization can choose which legal ebook titles from LexisNexis they want to include in their law library.  They can also choose to offer any other ebook from OverDrive’s content catalog.

It’s unclear how the LexisNexis Digital Library will be priced, but it looks like it will be similar to how the OverDrive offering for public libraries operates.  Most likely there will be an annual subscription fee for the OverDrive platform and then an additional per copy price for each ebook that the law library wants to lend out.

LexisNexis has dominated the law library space for a very long time and OverDrive is pretty much the only ebook lending platform at public libraries.  It makes sense that the two decided to work together to provide ebook lending for law libraries.

Bad news for people that love their print books – a survey of avid readers found that ebooks are superior to print books for a wide range of purposes.

The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Reading Habits Survey conducted a study from 11/16/11 to 12/21/11 on people that had read both ebooks and printed books in the previous 12 months.  They then asked those readers if they thought an ebook or a print book was better for several common scenarios.

The study found that respondents thought ebooks were superior to print books in most situations.  The only two categories where people thought print books were better than ebooks were in “Reading with a child” and “Sharing books with other people”.  This makes sense since children’s books have great illustrations, range drastically in size, and are usually made of child-friendly materials.  The sharing makes sense too since ebooks are virtually impossible to share.  The following chart shows the results of the survey:

The vast majority of readers found that ebooks were better than print books for many important reasons.  It makes sense that ebooks dominate in the “Being able to get a book quickly” and “Reading books while traveling or commuting” categories.  You can download an ebook instantly from almost anywhere and you can take an entire collection of ebooks with you on a single device anywhere you go.

It’s pretty surprising that ebooks were superior to print books in the “Having a wide selection of books to choose from” category.  There are still many print books being sold where there is no electronic version available.  The Harry Potter ebooks were available for the first time just last month while the print books have been out for years.

The most interesting data from the study was the “Reading books in bed” category.  This is the only category that truly provides information on which format readers prefer to physically hold and read.  The study shows that people are divided almost equally in this category.

So ebooks win out in convenience and availability and are just as good as print books in the aesthetics department.  This is probably why ebook sales are skyrocketing and print book sales are falling.

Just when you thought the US government couldn’t possibly be any more ineffective than it is, they go and sue Apple and the book publishers to try to increase competition in ebooks.  Yes, they are going after mighty Apple and its 5-10% share of the ebook market.

The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit last Wednesday alleging that Apple and five book publishers worked together to artificially increase ebook prices for their mutual benefit.  The DOJ threatened to sue the book publishers and Apple over ebook pricing over a month ago so they are just following through with their warning.

The antitrust charges were filed as a result of a change in the way the book publishers sell their ebooks to retailers back in 2010.  Apple was launching the very first iPad and they wanted to be able to offer ebooks on the device.  They approached the book publishers and explained to them that they wanted to sell ebooks on the iPad like they sell everything else.

Apple wanted the publishers to set the price of the ebooks and Apple would take a 30% share of the sales price.  This is the same pricing model that Apple used with music companies and also with app developers.  This agency model was very different from the way publishers were selling ebooks at the time.  Publishers were using a wholesale model where they would sell the ebook to the retailer for a fixed price and the retailer could then charge however much they wanted to for the ebook.

Apple explained to the book publishers that they should switch to the agency model for the iPad.  The publishers liked the idea since they were afraid of Amazon at the time.  Amazon had 90% of the ebook market and was willing to sell ebooks at a loss so that they could sell more Kindles.  The publishers were worried that this might train consumers to expect really low prices for ebooks.

So the publishers went for the agency model with Apple.  The problem with the switch to the agency model is that Apple wanted a “most favored nation” clause that made it so that the book publishers would not sell their ebooks for a lower price anywhere else.  This caused the publishers to force Amazon to switch to the agency model.  The net effect was that ebook prices increased compared to the wholesale model.

This is why the DOJ has targeted Apple and their pathetic 5-10% ebook market share instead of Amazon and their 60% ebook market share.  The DOJ is thinking they can be the hero because they are going to increase competition with their antitrust lawsuit and lower the prices of ebooks.

Three of the book publishers decided to settle right away, but Apple, Penguin, and Macmillan are fighting the lawsuit.  The publishers that settled agreed to terminate any existing deals with Apple or any other retailer that “restricts, limits, or impedes the ebook retailer’s ability to set, alter, or reduce the retail price of any ebook”.  The publishers also can’t enter into any such deal for at least two years.

In other words, the publishers and Apple will not be allowed to use the agency model for ebooks for two years.  More specifically, Amazon and other retailers will be able to price ebooks at whatever price they want instead of the price that the book publisher or author wants.

This will almost guarantee that Amazon will have a monopoly on ebooks.  Soon after, they will probably have a monopoly on print books as well.

Amazon will begin pricing their ebooks at prices so low that they lose money on every ebook sold.  Barnes & Noble will not be able to match the low prices, so they will lose their 25% market share of ebooks.  Consumers will buy way more ebooks than they do now since ebook prices will be much lower than print book prices.  This will cause Barnes & Noble to go out of business just like Borders.  Declining print sales will no longer support their physical stores.

Amazon will be the only place to buy either print books or ebooks.  They will then go to the book publishers and negotiate more favorable deals.  The publishers make most of their money on sales of print books which will drastically decline after Barnes & Noble goes out of business.  A huge swath of authors will choose to self-publish directly with Amazon since there will be no need to market their through book publishers.  This will cause the book publishers to go out of business or to drastically shift to marketing firms for only the most successful authors.

In the end, the DOJ will have created an end-to-end ebook monopoly for Amazon.  They will be the retailer, the publisher, and the ereader manufacturer.  Of course consumers will pay less for ebooks if that happens.  At least until Amazon decides to raise the prices.

Amazon had a press release today that provided some pretty revealing statistics on their Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  The announcement contained highlights for the past month just like previous press releases on the lending program, but it also provided some extremely important information for libraries and book publishers.

The announcement contained specific details on sales data for ebooks that were borrowed through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  Past press releases have always said that authors that participated in the program made more money and sold more ebooks, but now we have data on how many more ebook sales they had as a result of loaning their ebook out for free.

Amazon found that 24% of people that borrowed ”The Hunger Games” ebook by Suzanne Collins for free ended up buying both of the other ebooks in the trilogy “Catching Fire” and “Mockingjay”.  Customers did this even though all three books are available for free in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

The Hunger Games series is a record-breaking trilogy that been in the top positions of Amazon’s Best Sellers list for a very long time.  This shows that even super popular ebooks can sell more copies by participating in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.  Of course, only one ebook can be borrowed per month through the program, so that probably is a large part of the reason why people that borrowed the first ebook ended up buying the other two.  It would be interesting to see how many people would still pay for the other two books if Amazon allowed three ebooks to be borrowed per month.

Lesser known authors saw sales spike after loaning out their ebooks for free as well.  25% of customers that borrowed an ebook written by L.J. Sellers ended up buying one of her other ebooks.  51% of customers that borrowed one of Debora Geary’s ebooks through the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library decided to buy one of her ebooks.

The press release showcases several other independent authors that saw a gigantic increase in the sales of their ebooks as a result of participating in the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library.

Amazon has proved that giving away ebooks for free can drastically increase the number of ebooks you sell.  Now we just need book publishers to wake up and start loaning out their ebooks at public libraries.

The US National Archives made history yesterday by putting the entire 1940 census online.  Previously, census data was only released on microfilm.  This is the first time that a decennial US census has ever been made available online.

The historic event was greeted with such enthusiasm that it brought the website hosting the 1940 census to its knees.  The census is available at http://1940census.archives.gov and is provided through a partnership with a private company, Archives.com.  The website received so much traffic on the first day that you could barely complete a search and it would take forever for results to come back.

Archives.com issued a statement saying “We expected a flood and we got a tsunami” in regards to the launch of the site.  The site received over 37 million page views within just a few hours of launching.

The website provides access to digitized records with details on 132 million people.  Genealogists and researchers that previously resorted to obituaries and public records now have access to a treasure trove of information.

The 1940 census was taken right before the US entered World War II and after a decade of the Great Depression so it provides a snapshot of the US at a very unique time in history.  The census also had unusual questions like occupation, income, and whether people had a social security number.  The answers to these questions give an incredible amount of detail into the lives of US citizens in 1940.

It’s no surprise that there was huge demand for the 1940 census as soon as it launched.  The initial traffic slowed the site to a crawl.  There is currently a message on the homepage of the site saying “Thank you for your patience as we continue to address issues with the 1940 census web site.”.

The issues with the launch might have been avoided if we had a National Digital Public Library of America (DPLA).  Such a library would be dedicated to hosting digital collections and would have the resources and expertise to handle the huge amount of traffic that the census received.

Being able to handle the huge amount of traffic would be just one of the benefits of a DPLA.  We would have a single repository for all digital collections and would have standards for storing digitized data.  The DPLA would be able to leverage huge economies of scale in acquiring servers, bandwidth, and software.

The US National Archives partnered with a private company to get the 1940 census online.  Wouldn’t it be better if our cultural heritage and our history was instead entrusted to a national digital public library?