No Evidence Of E-book Lending Leading To Buying ... But-

It is always great to have a bit of research done. But it does need to 
be good. So the suggestion that improving the ebook lending availability 
leads to more reading is a valuable point. But as the second article 
below makes clear, it is flawed in its conclusion on resulting sales.

What is of great interest to print publishing is that the boost in ebook 
borrowing did not dent print book lends.

Joseph Harris

No Evidence Of E-book Lending Leading To Buying

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/remote-e-lending-pilot-project-reveals-half-year-trends


  An Incomplete Report on a Flawed Pilot Program Suggests that Library
  eBook Loans Don't Drive Sales

http://the-digital-reader.com/2014/11/24/incomplete-report-flawed-pilot-program-suggests-library-ebook-loans-dont-drive-sales/#.VHRWGPl_vX4

The 6 month status report released today found that:

    * *An overall growth in e-lending*.  All four authorities have seen
      a significant increase in e-lending, with the pilot titles
      constituting a significant proportion of the overall e-book downloads.

    * *A longer loan period leads to more titles being borrowed*. Longer
      lending periods (i.e. 21 days) appears to have led to a higher
      number of different titles being borrowed and more patrons joining
      the waiting lists.

    * *The increase in e-lending is not leading to a decrease in
      physical lending*.  The participating libraries do not appear to
      have seen a decline in footfall or in the lending of physical books.
    * *No evidence of e-book lending leading to buying*. There has been
      extremely low take up of the opportunity to buy the borrowed
      e-book through use of the "click to purchase" facility.

"the only retail option offered was Kobo (about half of the titles had 
no buying option at all)."

The pdfof the report is here: 
http://www.internationalpublishers.org/images/stories/news/Elending.pdf