Demand for Library E-Book Rental Services Surging in Japan

Tokyo, June 29 (Jiji Press)--Demand has been growing rapidly for electronic book rental services offered by public libraries in Japan amid the coronavirus crisis. The popularity came as such services, which were available even when libraries were shut due to the virus outbreak, allow users to avoid the three Cs of closed, crowded and close-contact settings, seeking not to contract COVID-19. Some public libraries rushed to introduce e-books to meet demand from people unable to visit in person. The rental services allow users to browse e-books on library websites that can be accessed with identification codes and passwords. The number of people who can read the same e-book at a time is limited. Reservations can be made for borrowing such digital books. According to the Association for E-publishing Business Solution, e-book rental services were available at libraries operated by 94 municipalities, or some 7 pct of all municipalities in the country, as of April. Tokyo-based TRC Library Service Inc., which is entrusted with library operations and other businesses, said that the number of e-books borrowed through libraries started to increase around February, when such facilities began to close or scale down their services across the country due to the pandemic. The total number of e-books borrowed in May from libraries in some 80 municipalities for which TRC offers services shot up five-fold from a year before to some 85,000. The surge appeared to reflect the central government's stay-at-home requests and a total of some 300 e-books that publishers made available for free browsing on a temporary basis. A service by Tokyo's Chiyoda Public Library to lend digital picture books has been popular. Mutsumi Sakamaki, an employee of the library, suggested that many parents wanting to read books to their children while staying at home utilized the e-picture books as some of them come with a storytelling audio service. "As our temporary closure was prolonged, we decided to introduce an online rental service," said Yukiko Yamamoto, chief of a library run by the city of Kasuga in the southwestern Japan prefecture of Fukuoka. The library reopened on May 28 and started offering e-books on June 2. The number of visitors to the library currently stands at some half of levels before the virus crisis. About 800 e-books have become newly available on the library's website, Yamamoto noted. "We hope people who can't visit us will utilize the service." END