Tag Archives: James LaRue

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Just How Big Are the Big Six?

MoneyLeave it to James LaRue to put things in perspective for us regarding the monetary power of the big publishers. In the past couple of years with pricing struggles with the Big Six (Five now), is it possible that in our minds they have gotten bigger than they really are? Very possibly. When we consider that Amazon alone has more capital than the Big Six combined, we have reason to take pause.

See LaRue’s post to view a table of annual sales of first the top five US publishers, then the annual revenues of the Big Six. The data was extracted from the following report that LaRue endorses for every library Board packet.

The report is Exploring Connections: Independent Publishers and Research Libraries,’ by Amy Ballmer, Albert Municino, Judith Schwartz, and Robert Weiss for the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

This idea of working more closely with independent publishers and research libraries for eContent was a topic of conversation recently at the Explore eBooks MN Summit event. No time to attend? Hear the speakers and view the results of facilitated conversations here.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/q6a6gz8, licensed under CC BY 2.0

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

DCL eBook April Report

Glasses Hey Paul StudiosIf you have never looked at one of these reports, it is good to remind ourselves of a few things. First, you can readily see which eBooks are currently most popular for a given month. But the main point of the report is to pay close attention to the difference in pricing of eBooks for Libraries versus eBook pricing for Consumers. James LaRue makes a couple of good points: “First, self-published works don’t always make it onto this type of list, even if they are wildly successful, when they lack an ISBN. Second, DCL staff couldn’t get into Bilbary despite repeated attempts, so that column has been removed.”…

Go to DCL ebook report, April 

The PDF file  is also available for the pricing comparisons.

Most consumers, legislators, and even administrators do not understand the pricing disparities that libraries are experiencing for eBooks. We can be part of the solution by paying attention and sharing this information more broadly.