书店和图书馆闭店，电子书阅读量激增
新冠疫情迫使美国各地的书店和图书馆临时闭店闭馆，电子书重新受到读者青睐。
过去六年，电子书市场一直处于下滑趋势，但在疫情期间，电子书市场成为获取新书最简单的方式之一，图书馆和出版商均表示，读者对电子书的兴趣激增。
例如，OverDrive协助北美90%的图书馆向读者提供电子书，自3月中旬前以来，电子书借阅量平均增长了53%。该公司表示，借阅童书的儿童或成年人的电子书阅读量增长最多。青少年非小说类电子书借阅量增长了122%，少年小说类电子书借阅量增长了93%。
自3月初以来，电子借书证新增34.3万张，是去年全年新增数量的两倍多。OverDrive提供400多万种数字图书，包括电子书和可下载有声书。
OverDrive市场总监大卫•伯利称，阅读电子书的孩子越来越多，原因显而易见。他说：“全国各地的学校仍未复课，学生、家长和老师仍须从公共图书馆借阅教育类和娱乐类数字图书。自颁布居家隔离令以来，儿童类和青少年类[图书]阅读量增长最多，尤其是电子书。”
纽约公共图书馆使用自有电子书借阅平台，借阅量增幅更大。纽约公共图书馆的全部实体建筑（共92栋）不得不在3月中旬闭馆，促使其电子书阅读平台SimplyE的新用户增长了两倍。图书馆管理员安德鲁•梅德拉尔表示，目前已有5万人注册了电子借书证，同比增长了864%。
图书馆系统还尝试在线提供一些项目。梅德拉尔表示，许多人加入了虚拟图书俱乐部，俱乐部提供了一份有关“黑人解放”的在线推荐阅读清单，促使清单中的许多图书成为图书馆借阅率最高的电子书。
居家热潮也推动了主要出版商的电子书销量激增。美国出版商协会报告称，据最新数据显示，今年四月，出版商的电子书收入同比增长11%，增至9,300万美元。电子书销量曾在2014年达到顶峰，此后一路下滑，这是自去年七月以来首次出现月度同比增长，扭转了电子书销量长期下滑的局面。与此同时，四月纸质大众图书收入下降7%，降至5.49亿美元。
长期出版顾问（同时负责撰写行业新闻简报Hot Sheet）简•弗里德曼表示，尽管如此，电子书定价仍相对较高，一旦疫情结束，读者可能会重新青睐纸质书。她说：“喜欢纸质书的读者可能仍会在有条件时购买纸质书。对他们来说，电子书只是在无法及时获取纸质书时采取的权宜之计。”
皮尤研究中心（Pew Research）的调查显示，去年美国只有约四分之一的人读过一本电子书，65%的人至少读过一本纸质书。从2011年到2014年，电子书阅读量稳步增长，之后趋于平稳，甚至略有下降。（财富中文网）
翻译：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
新冠疫情迫使美国各地的书店和图书馆临时闭店闭馆，电子书重新受到读者青睐。
过去六年，电子书市场一直处于下滑趋势，但在疫情期间，电子书市场成为获取新书最简单的方式之一，图书馆和出版商均表示，读者对电子书的兴趣激增。
例如，OverDrive协助北美90%的图书馆向读者提供电子书，自3月中旬前以来，电子书借阅量平均增长了53%。该公司表示，借阅童书的儿童或成年人的电子书阅读量增长最多。青少年非小说类电子书借阅量增长了122%，少年小说类电子书借阅量增长了93%。
自3月初以来，电子借书证新增34.3万张，是去年全年新增数量的两倍多。OverDrive提供400多万种数字图书，包括电子书和可下载有声书。
OverDrive市场总监大卫•伯利称，阅读电子书的孩子越来越多，原因显而易见。他说：“全国各地的学校仍未复课，学生、家长和老师仍须从公共图书馆借阅教育类和娱乐类数字图书。自颁布居家隔离令以来，儿童类和青少年类[图书]阅读量增长最多，尤其是电子书。”
纽约公共图书馆使用自有电子书借阅平台，借阅量增幅更大。纽约公共图书馆的全部实体建筑（共92栋）不得不在3月中旬闭馆，促使其电子书阅读平台SimplyE的新用户增长了两倍。图书馆管理员安德鲁•梅德拉尔表示，目前已有5万人注册了电子借书证，同比增长了864%。
图书馆系统还尝试在线提供一些项目。梅德拉尔表示，许多人加入了虚拟图书俱乐部，俱乐部提供了一份有关“黑人解放”的在线推荐阅读清单，促使清单中的许多图书成为图书馆借阅率最高的电子书。
居家热潮也推动了主要出版商的电子书销量激增。美国出版商协会报告称，据最新数据显示，今年四月，出版商的电子书收入同比增长11%，增至9,300万美元。电子书销量曾在2014年达到顶峰，此后一路下滑，这是自去年七月以来首次出现月度同比增长，扭转了电子书销量长期下滑的局面。与此同时，四月纸质大众图书收入下降7%，降至5.49亿美元。
长期出版顾问（同时负责撰写行业新闻简报Hot Sheet）简•弗里德曼表示，尽管如此，电子书定价仍相对较高，一旦疫情结束，读者可能会重新青睐纸质书。她说：“喜欢纸质书的读者可能仍会在有条件时购买纸质书。对他们来说，电子书只是在无法及时获取纸质书时采取的权宜之计。”
皮尤研究中心（Pew Research）的调查显示，去年美国只有约四分之一的人读过一本电子书，65%的人至少读过一本纸质书。从2011年到2014年，电子书阅读量稳步增长，之后趋于平稳，甚至略有下降。（财富中文网）
翻译：刘进龙
审校：汪皓
The COVID-19 crisis forced bookstores and libraries to close across the country, which has ignited a revival in reading electronic books.
The e-book market had been in decline for the past six years, but now that it’s one of the easiest ways to get new books during the pandemic, libraries and publishers report a surge of new interest.
For example, at OverDrive, which helps 90% of libraries in North America offer e-books to their patrons, e-book loans have jumped 53% on average since before mid-March. Kids, or grownups checking out kids’ books, have increased their e-book reading the most, the company says. Young adult nonfiction e-book checkouts are up 122%, and juvenile fiction is up 93%.
The system has also seen 343,000 people create new digital library cards since the beginning of March, more than double the number created in all of last year. OverDrive’s catalog includes more than 4 million digital offerings, counting both e-books and downloadable audio books.
More kids are reading e-books for a pretty obvious reason, explains David Burleigh, director of marketing at OverDrive. “As schools around the country have remained closed, students, parents, and teachers have continued to turn to digital titles from public libraries for educational and entertaining content,” he says. “Children’s and young adult [books] have seen the largest surges in usage since the stay-at-home order, especially in the e-book format.”
In the New York Public Library system, which uses its own homegrown e-book lending platform, the increase has been even larger. The system has seen a 200% increase in new users of its e-reading platform, called SimplyE, since all 92 of its physical buildings had to close in mid-March. And 50,000 people have signed up for digital library cards in the app, an 864% increase from the same period last year, says Andrew Medlar, who manages the library’s circulating collection.
The library system has also tried to transfer some of its programming online. Thousands of people have joined one of the system’s virtual book clubs, and an online recommended reading list related to black liberation has pushed many titles onto the library’s most-borrowed e-book list, Medlar says.
The stay-at-home boom has also increased outright sales of e-books from major publishers. In April, according to the most recent data available, publishers’ e-book revenue grew 11% compared with the same month last year, rising to $93 million, the Association of American Publishers reports. That’s the first monthly year-over-year increase since last July and reverses a long-running decline in e-book sales, which peaked in 2014. At the same time, revenue from general interest print books in April declined 7% to $549 million.
Still, publishers have kept e-book prices relatively high, and consumers will probably go back to reading print books once the crisis ends, says longtime publishing consultant Jane Friedman, who also writes the industry newsletter Hot Sheet. “Readers who prefer print will likely continue to choose it when they can,” she says. “For them, e-books are a stopgap measure, especially when supply chain issues prevent print copies from being readily available.”
Only about one-quarter of people in the U.S. read an e-book last year, compared with 65% who read at least one print book, according to surveys by Pew Research. E-book reading increased steadily from 2011 through 2014 before plateauing and even declining slightly since then.
