
Statewide programs for ebook “ownership” are emerging in California, Kansas, Arizona, and Massachusetts, aiming for direct deals with publishers in some cases, and long-term preservation of local content in others.
February 7, 2023
On Libraries and New Media, powered by Library Journal and School Library Journal
Statewide programs for ebook “ownership” are emerging in California, Kansas, Arizona, and Massachusetts, aiming for direct deals with publishers in some cases, and long-term preservation of local content in others.
The Califa Library Group and Contra Costa County Library (CCCL) today officially announced the beta launch of Enki Library, a new ebook platform designed to host and lend library-managed ebooks using the Douglas County model. Named after the Sumerian god of mischief, creativity, and intelligence, Enki went live at CCCL and the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) on May 6, and will soon serve multiple libraries in California, beginning with members of the Bay Area Library and Information System (BALIS) consortium.
Califa, Douglas County Libraries, and The Internet Archive’s Open Library have made purchase commitments to acquire variations of the top 10,000 best-selling ebooks from indie distributor Smashwords. All told, the three separate commitments total about $100,000. The sales will occur through Library Direct, a new service that Smashwords has launched to facilitate the transfer of large collections of ebooks to libraries.
The San Mateo-based Califa Group, which is the largest library network in California, has made major strides in its project to create an ebook ownership model along the same lines as the Douglas County Libraries in Colorado.
The Douglas County Libraries pioneering model for purchasing ebooks directly from publishers is gaining a significant amount of traction.
Colorado’s Marmot Library Network, Anythink Libraries, and Wake County Public Libraries in North Carolina will all soon begin working with the DCL model. The news comes less than two months after San Mateo-based Califa Group, the largest library network in California, also announced plans to adopt DCL’s library-owned, library-managed ebook model.
Ebook platform Bilbary has inked deals with two trade publishers to lend ebooks, not just sell them, founder Tim Coates told LJ today. Berrett-Koehler Publishers and another mid-level trade press joined about six academic publishers in pioneering the company’s lending model. “All our rentals will be direct to consumer, but when we partner with a […]
The largest library network in California is going to adopt the pioneering ebook business model of Colorado’s Douglas County Libraries, which allows libraries to truly own, not rent, their ebooks.
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