- Village Gamer - http://www.villagegamer.net -

Public Libraries Join Forces To Demand Better e-Book Accessibility

culc [1]The Canadian Urban Libraries Council [1] (CULC), a coalition of Canada’s large public libraries, along with many U.S. public libraries such as the New York Public Library, are putting forth their demands for changes to the way e-book content is purchased and delivered, in order to improve access for customers.

Libraries have a responsibility to advocate for the public and ensure that users have the same open, easy and free access to e-books [2] that they have come to rely on with physical books.

They currently face two major challenges. The first is that a number of major publishers are not selling e-books to libraries.  The second is that the products currently offered by electronic content distributors, the intermediaries from whom libraries buy e-books, create a fragmented, disjointed and cumbersome user experience.  To correct this, e-content providers must be willing partners, and offer products that allow customers to:

The following Canadian public libraries, which in total serve over 12.5 million people, are supporting this endeavour:

In order for libraries to continue to function as key providers of information to the public, these basic principles must be followed. The libraries who signed this agreement are committed to holding content providers to this standard, and will prioritize these requirements when acquiring e-books and other e-content.

This statement advances the work of the CULC e-book taskforce, which released its Vision Statement in August 2010. Further exploration of this issue has culminated in a shared set of requirements for the development of a digital repository for Canadian public libraries. CULC will publicly release these requirements [2] to companies interested in developing a hosted service for a Canadian digital repository in June 2012.

2 Comments (Open | Close)

2 Comments To "Public Libraries Join Forces To Demand Better e-Book Accessibility"

#1 Comment By Tami Quiring (@VillageGamer) On Tuesday June 5, 2012 @ 12:31 pm

Canadian Public Libraries Join Forces To Demand Better e-Book Accessibility [7]

#2 Comment By Alvin Lau (@alvinjasm) On Tuesday June 5, 2012 @ 1:08 pm

RT @VillageGamer: Canadian Public Libraries Join Forces To Demand Better e-Book Accessibility [7]