The User Is (Still) Not Broken

Fox, Leslie

Kenny, B. (2014) The User is still not broken, LJ

Summary

Kenny points out in this article that while both are growing, e-book borrowing, is growing beyond print book borrowing. Now that the excitement about e-books has settled down, people have adjusted to using them are not ready to give up print books. Patrons have preferences, some for e-books, some for audiobooks and others for print. It often depends on what they are going to be doing (traveling on a plane, long commute) or what’s going on in their life. Some still recoil at the thought of reading on a tablet rather than in a print book. Kenny states that e-book sales have flattened in the last year [2014] and in the then recent PEW research the number of adults who reported reading an e-book grew only slightly, from 23% to 28%. He goes on to say that the real focus needs to be on service to our patrons, not on the collection.

Evaluation

The main emphasis on the article is focusing on people rather than materials and getting beyond the idea that the OPAQ as an end all and be all search tool. He discusses getting outside of our own catalogs to find what's out there (Amazon, GoodReads). Patrons don't really need our OPAQ as much as we think they do, but what they need from us is human connection. The portion of the article that focuses on e-books is quite small but relevant.