In a comment response to our recent “More than 7 Questions about E-Books” post, DeKalb County Public Library Director Alison Weissinger writes in with news…

DeKalb County Public Library will be offering eBooks through the OverDrive platform by the end of this year. DeKalb currently uses OverDrive for downloadable audiobooks. OverDrive has recently made arrangements with Amazon to allow for public library lending of Kindle format eBooks. About 90% of the titles available through OverDrive for public library lending should be Kindle-compatible. Other formats included on the platform are ePub and .pdf and will work with a variety of other devices such as Nook, Kobo, Sony, iPad, etc.

DeKalb’s starter collection will consist of several hundred titles, but we also expect demand to be very high. OverDrive has a queuing system, so you can place titles you want on hold and be notified by email when it is your turn. The Library’s budget for buying materials continues to be limited due to County budget cuts, but we will increase the collection as funding allows.

In preparation for the holiday season, STG’s got some questions for y’all about e-books…

1. Which do you prefer: Kindle or Nook or Sony (or something else that is flying under the radar so far)?
2.  Which one do you use? How do you use it, e.g., books only, periodicals also? If you were choosing today, which would you choose?
3.  What do you like best about the one you use compared to print? What do you like best about it compared to other e-readers? What does your version not do or offer that others do?
4.  Do you also still read “real” books? If so, please elaborate. If not, what do you miss about printed books (if anything)?
5.  What new capability do you hope will come to e-readers in the future?
6.  Any experience with e-book lending programs, formal or informal? (Amazon recently launched a lending program for Amazon Prime members but single review I’ve seen claimed the selection is limited. No clue if lending programs are available or planned for Nook or Sony….anybody know?)
7.  Anybody have a clue which technology Dekalb County library system will choose (assuming it ever has hopes of budgetary capacity to even consider adding e-books)?

Let me just start out by saying, I can certainly be accused of jumping the gun with a post like this.

E-books are still in their infancy and present one giant hurdle for an entire industry; they will never be able to compete with hardbacks in terms of pure profit.  Of course, the same story is being written in the arenas of music and news.  Smaller to non-existent profit margins for delivering the same product will inevitably shake up an industry.  It’s really as simple as that.

But with so much general negativity surrounding the dying tactile publishing industry, a counterargument can be interesting if just simply in its rarity.

How can the book industry adapt to smaller profit margins?  Simple: they must downsize and/or sell more books.  The former is undeniably ugly for those involved.  But perhaps we can find hope in the latter.

Early indicators have shown that e-book readers consume more long-form writing than in their earlier, analog lives.  The accessibility of e-book readers may even help the industry cut into things like the time people spend watching TV, as was recently mentioned in a New York Times article about tweens e-book adoption habits.  That’s good news.

And not only that, but such accessibility might even help the industry help monetize the library and person-to-person borrowing that currently doesn’t make the publishing industry a single cent.

That means there might just be a light at the end of the tunnel that reveals a world where everyone reads more.  For all of its benefits, perhaps the physical book had just become an unworthy competitor in a world with so many more immediate forms of media.  And maybe amidst days of biting our nails at the transition, we should take a moment to rejoice that increased consumption can be achieved without dumbing down the medium.  The stories and ideas and pictures are evergreen, as we all knew they were.  We just needed to speed up the delivery method.

P.S. Of course, this counter-positive outlook for the industry doesn’t take into account the fate of the countless indispensable local bookstores out there, which act as a meeting place for entire communities of book and idea lovers.  Their future won’t be easy.  But I believe the best will survive.  The shops that give their customers an unique and satisfying experience with each purchase will carry on.  Because regardless of the industry that produces and distributes them, books are foremost a form of art.  And art has always been both a public and private pursuit.