A new service that increases the availability of e-books at public libraries has led to a nearly 80 percent increase in borrowing in the first month since it was implemented, the Ministry of Culture said yesterday.
From last month, people are allowed to borrow 10 e-books from public libraries at a time, and the same e-book can be lent to an unlimited number of readers.
Prior to the new service, the number of times each public library could lend an e-book per month was limited and there was a limit on how many times the same e-book could be lent at once.
Photo courtesy of the Keelung City Government
The ministry allocated NT$100 million (US$3.1 million) for the first year of the new service, with 20 administrative regions participating.
Every time an e-book is borrowed, the publisher and author are paid a fixed amount, creating a positive cycle whereby reading and creating reinforce each other, it said.
The publishing industry has suffered greatly due to the digitalization trend, so “the government should do something” to preserve the cultural value of publishing, Minister of Culture Shih Che (史哲) said.
In the program’s first month, e-book borrowing increased more than 80 percent in Yilan, Nantou, Taitung, Penghu and Kinmen counties, as well as in Keelung and Chiayi City, the ministry said.
The five special municipalities in the program — excluding Taipei, which did not join — on average had a more than 50 percent rise in e-book borrowing, it said.
It is normal for activity to rise immediately after a policy is launched, but the data indicate that the market for digital reading has the potential to grow, Shih said.
The number of print books borrowed from public libraries nationwide last year was 94.17 million, compared with 9.33 million e-books, the ministry said.
E-book use and the output of digital publishing have the potential to grow substantially, it said.
The key to stimulating interest in reading lies in identifying readers’ needs, the ministry said, adding that publishers and e-book platforms have been striving to provide more diverse content since the new service was launched.
The Taiwan Cloud Library has an online book exhibition featuring fiction, Taipei-based multimedia publisher HyRead has an exhibition featuring detective novels and iRead eBooks has invited professionals to make book recommendations related to their expertise, the ministry said.
The novel Port of Lies (八尺門的辯護人), which was adapted for TV by Netflix, was the most borrowed e-book across platforms last month, it said.
In addition to expanding its e-book services, the ministry also launched a program to ensure that the procurement prices public libraries pay for books are at least 70 percent of the list price to prevent price-cutting in the sector, it said.
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