New Article: Ebook Availability and Usage in Japan’s Public Libraries

From The Japan News:

Despite the increasingly widespread readership of electronic books, e-book loan services at libraries show no signs of catching on.
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Nevertheless, there are only 30 digital libraries in the nation, according to research by the Japan Library Association, although there are varying definitions of what constitutes a digital library.
This means that of the 3,244 public libraries nationwide in fiscal 2014, only about 1 percent offer e-book services. Likewise, less than 2 percent of local governments — 1,718 in April 2014 — provide such services.
A key reason these figures are so small is the relatively few e-books available for loan. Also, most of the books that are available were published many years ago.
According to an estimate by hon.jp, Inc., the operator of an e-book search engine, there are more than 750,000 e-book titles currently on the market. However, the number available to borrow at libraries ranges from only a few thousand to slightly more than 10,000.

Read the Complete Article (approx. 900 words)

Filed under: Digital Collections, Interactive Tools, Libraries, News, Public Libraries