eBound and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council

An interesting initiative is underway in Canada which aims to develop a framework for eLending and has the support of both public libraries (represented by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council: CULChttp://www.culc.ca/knowledge/ebooks/ ) and the Canadian English language publishing community (represented by eBound http://www.eboundcanada.org/ ). If the planned model works, international publishers will be invited to participate in the scheme.

Extract from Public Library eBook Lending Initiative Request for Information document: (http://www.culc.ca/cms_lib/eBOUND-CULC-RFI-Public-Library-eBook-Lending-... ).

The solution will facilitate sales of both eBook and print materials from the same publishers to library patrons, with the appearance of patron transactions taking place in the library discovery layer (catalogue).

We will know we are successful when:

Canadian owned and Canadian controlled publishers can sell or lease their digital content directly and indirectly to public libraries, and
When Canadian libraries can purchase eBooks and digital content from multiple vendors of their choosing, and
When public library discovery layers seamlessly permit patrons to borrow and download content, without the appearance of leaving the library’s site or using third party vendors, and
When digital content and print material are capable of being sold to members of the public through public library discovery layers, with local or preferred booksellers becoming an option for fulfillment where available, and
When all publishers have the capacity to market their digital content to public libraries, and
When libraries have the ability to merchandise that content through their discovery layers.

If our joint goals are to be successful, four key elements must in place:

1. Publishers and public libraries must agree upon reasonable options for the use of published material. STATUS: Positive negotiations are taking place and both parties are confident that agreements can be reached.

2. Library discovery layers must have the capacity to query and retrieve bibliographic data from various sources and integrate patron borrowing transactions for eContent, based on library agreements with publishers. This includes the capacity to display integrated physical and digital loans and holds in the patron’s account information. STATUS:Some vendors now provide such discovery layer catalogues and others have announced similar products.

3. Library discovery layers will facilitate and allow for the potential sale of digital content and print material directly to the public in a way that keeps the sales within Canada and, in the case of print, that allows for each library system to determine appropriate booksellers or vendors, if they opt for this service. Status:Some vendors and discovery layer catalogues now provide the potential for this functionality.

4. There must be a secure, trusted, Canadian controlled electronic storage location where digital content that has been purchased or licensed to public libraries can be housed or accessed by those libraries. This ocation must allow for the portability of material at the libraries' discretion. By the term portability we mean that the intended storage location will provide a service to publishers and libraries by contract but that the owner in accordance with peer to peer agreements retains ownership and control of material. It is assumed that some digital content currently held in other locations may be moved to the eBOUND/CULC site. Status: This element of the made in Canada eBook solution is not yet available and is an important component of this RFI. Before attempting to build a solution, eBOUND Canada and CULC wish to determine if there are

eBound and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council

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