Get eBook Library – How Can Institutions & Publishers Benefit
Colleges and universities have huge libraries stacked with books. Brick-and-mortar libraries are still standing strong and are maintained by educational institutions. But let’s be practical here, how often are students excited at the prospect of going to the library to search for a book? An internet search is all it takes to find the information they require. And in today’s education system, where eBooks have become the norm, more and more students are taking advantage of eBook libraries.
There’s no denying that the popularity of eBook libraries is on the rise. In 2023, a whopping 370 million readers borrowed eBooks from 92 thousand libraries and schools. The number reaches an astounding 605 million if you consider all the other kinds of digital books that were borrowed that same year.
An eBook library is not just convenient for students to look up books and information, but it’s also beneficial for educational institutions and publishers.
This blog provides insights into the benefits extended by an eBook library to publishers and educational institutions.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents:
II. Significance of an eBook Library
III. How Do Institutions & Publishers Benefit from a Digital eBook Library?
What Is an eBook Library?
An eBook library is a digital storage space where all kinds of digital books, documents, research papers, maps, manuscripts, and other academic resources can be stored for easy access.
At its core, it’s like a physical library, where you can borrow books and materials to read them and then return them. However, it offers a lot more convenience as compared to physical libraries.
When it comes to online libraries, you can access the borrowed book through an eReader or any other device that you may use for reading virtual content. These may include your phone, laptop, tablet, desktop, etc.
The whole process of accessing, reading, and returning books is quite seamless and time-saving in the case of eBook libraries.
Significance of an eBook Library
The internet indeed offers an extensive range of materials for everyone to access and read for free online.
However, it’s not an organized system that can facilitate learning. When you search for a particular topic, you can’t rely on the internet to expose you to high-quality relevant books that can provide the information you need. The search engines are designed to crawl through databases and online resources. They show information that is most relevant to your search. Now, such results may not align with your learning requirements.
In comparison to this, an eBook library can provide you with digital books that are relevant to your subject matter. You can access all necessary information in an organized way and refer to them whenever required. Apart from books, you can also have access to other academic resources and materials that are available in digital form.
So, as far as accessing relevant information for learning is concerned, online libraries are a great option for students and professionals alike. No wonder, many schools, colleges, and universities across the world are setting up their own eBook libraries to help students and teachers access information seamlessly.
How Do Institutions & Publishers Benefit from a Digital eBook Library?
Digital libraries open up infinite possibilities for students and educators to access and share information conveniently. Apart from that, these libraries also offer a host of benefits for institutions & publishers.
Guide:
How To Create a Truly Interactive Ebook
with Mulimedia Enhancement
Benefits for Institutions
1. Efficient Paperless Systems
In a physical library, proper records have to be maintained to keep track of the books borrowed and returned. Now-a-days, there are library management systems where the staff can input book details and check the availability and inventory.
In an eBook library everything is digital- right from the books to record management. Now isn’t that a better and more efficient option? Moreover, every institute has paper-based documents in abundance, such as research papers, past test sheets, other educational resources etc.
All this information can be digitized and uploaded to the eLibrary. The future is paperless. Going completely paperless in educational institutions will further emphasize the importance of reducing paper usage and its corresponding environmental impact.
2. Cheaper to Maintain
Ever wondered how many books are there in your local or college library? Hundreds? Thousands? Sure, it needs quite a bit of space to accommodate these many books? On the contrary, a digital library fits in the palm of your hand.
Your students can have access to countless numbers of educational resources, while you don’t even have to maintain an entire room full of books. Capital-wise, a digital library is much cheaper to create as well as maintain.
Creating a digital library also helps avoid the misplacement of books.
3. Segregate and Categorize
You don’t need a librarian to walk around the place, shushing people and keeping the books in their right places. An eBook library can be easily managed, as people are not quite literally taking books out of shelves.
You only need to manage a database where you can neatly categorize each book based on its title, publishing date or author name. You can view real-time reports of the number of books being purchased or borrowed at any given time.
It’s a lot easier to categorize each eBook and upload it to the library. Once they’ve been added to the library, it stays there unless you remove it. Also, multiple students can access a single eBook at once!
4. Solves Preservation Problems
Books deteriorate over a period of time. Pages become brittle, and then there is the problem of acidification of pages. The cost of maintaining old volumes of books is pretty expensive.
Instead, if you can scan and digitize the pages, you no longer would have to worry about preserving the material. It stays new as ever.
5. Promotion of Accessibility
Digital libraries break down barriers to access for students and researchers, regardless of their physical location.
Institutions can provide access to a wide range of educational materials to students studying remotely or those who may have disabilities that affect their ability to use traditional print materials. This inclusivity fosters a more diverse and equitable learning environment.
6. Enhanced Search and Navigation Features
Unlike physical libraries, where finding specific information within a book can be time-consuming, digital eBook libraries offer advanced search functionalities. Users can easily search for keywords, phrases, or topics within a vast collection of materials, saving time and increasing productivity.
Additionally, digital libraries often include features such as bookmarks, annotations, and hyperlinks, enabling users to navigate through content efficiently and personalize their reading experience.
Benefits for Publishers
1. Easy to Create
Publishers too can create digital libraries of their publications. This can be done via an eBook creation software. The library can be created within the software platform itself. Looking for the best eBook creators? Here’s a list we made to show you the 10 best eBook creation software
Or you could probably take the help of a vendor to help you with setting up your library and distributing your eBooks. Some software tools let you create your own eCommerce engine or eBook store that is completely white labeled. You can host your eBooks and manage your categories, prices and promotions.
2. Updated Information
Another benefit of an online library is that learners always have access to up-to-date information. Changes made in the source file of the eBooks will directly be reflected in the eLibrary.
This is because the eBooks are stored on the cloud. Once you make changes to the main source file, users will have the latest content at hand.
3. Increased Reach
The reach of a digital library goes far and wide, unlike a brick and mortar library which is mostly frequented by the local population. eBooks available in a digital library can be accessed by students living in any part of the world. Today, a lot of students opt for online learning programs.
Having your own eBook library will provide students the opportunity to go through all your titles, thus increasing your chances of eBook distribution and sales. This also opens up an opportunity for institutions to get more students enrolled for their online programs.
4. Add Media Content to the eBook Collection
Having a digital library lets you add more media content to the existing collection of eBooks. A physical library mainly consists of books and CDs, but now you can extend your resources with various media formats such as animated videos, narratives, webinars, videos and audio files as well. You will have a variety of information resources to offer to the readers.
5. Add or Remove Content as Per User Preference
Traditional libraries usually keep their materials for an indefinite period of time. Even if the book has not been used by students in a long while.
When you develop a digital library, you have the freedom to remove content that is either obsolete or that is never downloaded or read by students. You can get this information through data content analytics. This means you can keep the latest eBooks and digital content that is most relevant for students.
6. Enhanced Marketing Opportunities
With a digital library, you have a platform to implement targeted marketing strategies. You can utilize data analytics to understand user preferences and behavior, allowing you to tailor promotional campaigns and recommendations based on individual interests. By leveraging features such as personalized recommendations and targeted advertisements, publishers can effectively promote their titles to a wider audience and drive sales.
Conclusion
An eBook library offers new possibilities for information access. You can make the information more diverse and improve its quality. While colleges and universities are finding it difficult to maintain a traditional library, a digital library might just be the solution to help them provide accessible educational resources to students at a much lower cost.
The best part of eLibraries is that you can not only upload eBooks but also get all your legacy content, like rare books, maps, manuscripts, photographs, and so on, digitized and available on the eLibrary. This implies that these libraries will certainly help you provide more valuable content to your learners.
If you’re looking for a reliable platform that can help you to digitize your physical books and turn them into eBooks conveniently, KITABOO, a leading digital textbook platform,can help. The platform applies cutting-edge technology and features to ensure seamless conversion of eBooks for your digital library. You can even use the platform to incorporate multimedia features in your eBooks.
Want to know more? Connect with us now!
Related Reads:
Discover how a mobile-first training platform can help your organization.
Kitaboo is a cloud-based platform to create, deliver & track mobile-first interactive training content.
