the ALA Digital Content and Libraries Working Group, Chicago, American Library Association, 2012, , 6 pp, n.p. (PDF), http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/sites/default/files/EbookBusinessModelsPublicLibs_ALA.pdf
This is a six-page PDF-only update from the ALA's Digital Content and Libraries Working Group on efforts to persuade the ‘Big Six’ trade publishers (Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin, Random House and Simon & Schuster) to sell e-books to libraries ‘on reasonable terms’.
The ALA's position is that: e-book titles available to the public should also be available to libraries for lending; libraries should have an option to own the e-books they purchase and lend them indefinitely; and publishers should provide metadata to make e-books easier to find in library catalogues and databases.
The ALA acknowledges that its stance is some distance from that of the industry it seeks to engage: ‘[S]ome major trade publishers will not sell e-books to libraries under any terms; others do so only at inflated prices or with severe restrictions.’ And this short document is a shot across the bows of the trade flotilla: ‘[B]usiness […] models that are explored in the year ahead may well pave the way to the models of the future. It is therefore important that libraries negotiate aggressively for the most favourable and flexible terms possible.’
Make no mistake, this is a call to arms, and the ALA has hoisted its colours. Sorting out the e-book issue, especially for popular fiction, may well be the issue for public libraries, and what the ALA does will determine outcomes in our neck of the woods. If you are involved with e-books, you need to read this dispatch from the front.
To keep up to date with developments in the e-content field, see the ALA's list of resources at: http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/columns/outsidein/essential-bookmarks.
© 2013, Ian McCallum