ALA E-book Report
ALA’s Digital Content & Libraries Working Group has been focusing on working with the Big 6 publishers to sell e-books to libraries on a reasonable basis. As they continue to do their work, they produced a very nice report for libraries.
In this report, they speak to what they define as reasonable terms for e-book sales to libraries and by doing so give libraries a sense of what they need to be looking for when brokering deals with publishers about e-books.
Take a look at the report, it’s very readable and something that could be easily shared with boards interested in the relationship between libraries and e-books.
The report offers “three basic attributes” that libraries need to look for no matter what model they are working under. These are attributes for us to work towards as a library community:
Inclusion of all titles – anything available for the public to purchase should also be available for library purchase
Enduring rights – libraries should own the e-books they purchase
Integration – libraries need access to metadata and other tools to enhance discovery of e-book holdings
It’s reports like this that echo my own beliefs about libraries and e-books that make me believe that there is hope. We just need to all be pulling in the same direction, toward the same result.
Image from Andrew Mason
