proACTive blog: Libraries and Ebooks Summary

On the 3 July 2013, 45 librarians from the Canberra region met at Gungahlin Library to discuss the current limitations around ebooks. The two presenters were Margarita Moreno (NLA) and Vanessa Little (Libraries ACT), who also led the discussions.

The session began with Vanessa speaking passionately about how libraries are at a crossroads in regards to epublications. Vanessa stated that we need to fight publishers to provide our customers with the access and flexibility they expect as well as being able to receive any epublication we feel belongs in our library’s collections. Vanessa went into more detail with “Setting the scene: the E-book landscape” - a presentation from Margaret Allen. (http://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/advocacy/Margaret%20Allen%20ALIA%20ebooks%20think%20tank%2028%20May%202013.pdf). Afterwards everyone briefly introduced themselves and broke into smaller groups to discuss their ebook experiences and issues that arose in their libraries (http://www.scribd.com/doc/152860054/Collated-notes-from-Libraries-and-Ebooks-03-07-2013-docx - pages 1-3).

The second presentation, from Margarita, looked at Inter Library Loans (ILL), Document Delivery (DD) and ebooks (http://www.scribd.com/doc/152860419/E-books-and-ILL-July-2013-ppt). This was followed by a second discussion session where the focus was on ALIA’s draft principles (http://www.alia.org.au/sites/default/files/documents/advocacy/ALIAebooksandelendingposition130522.pdf
and collated notes at http://www.scribd.com/doc/152860054/Collated-notes-from-Libraries-and-Ebooks-03-07-2013-docx - pages 4-5).

In between the two presentations attendees had the opportunity to see behind the scenes at Gungahlin Library and visit the Digital Hub.

Thank you once again to Vanessa Little for leading the discussion and Margarita Moreno for her presentation on the ILL and DD perspective.

Also a big thank you to all the Libraries ACT staff who helped make this afternoon possible – Sharon, Adrian, Shruti, Billie, Halina, Matthew and Debbie.

Additional resources:

http://www.alia.org.au/advocacy-and-campaigns/advocacy-campaigns/ebooks-and-elending

http://m.digitaltrends.com/mobile/e-book-library-lending-broken-difficult/

http://www.ifla.org/e-lending

http://www.plconnect.slq.qld.gov.au/manage/21st-century-public-libraries/ebooks