Audio Report: Web Transforms How New Zealanders Read

From Radio New Zealand:

Corin Haines manages services to public libraries at the Department of Internal Affairs.
He said ebooks’ popularity did not make them a threat to their printed counterparts, because electronic books only made up 1 percent or 2 percent of most collections.
“While the growth is exponential – 100 percent year on year growth – the numbers are still quite small. But that will change,” he said.
“The generations coming through now who are much more used to reading in that format, very soon will only know reading in that format. The printed book will seem quite old-fashioned.”
[Clip]
Booksellers’ Association’s chief executive Lincoln Gould said ebooks still made up a very small proportion of overall book sales.
He said there were not clear figures in New Zealand but thought their sales would plateau at about 20 percent as it has done overseas.
And he said there were already signals that a plateau was on the way.
“We’re seeing a flattening out of the earlier spectacular rise of ebooks and ereaders,” he said.

Read/Listen to the Complete Report

Filed under: Libraries, News, Public Libraries