Most scientific journal is accisible through academic libraries in digital form using a similar same model you simply put the content on a subsection of the libraries website that does little more then act as a proxy to the digital archives of said journal. A lot of technical publishers offer similar services O’Railey’s safari bookshelf are one example.

but those services have nothing to to with ebooks since they does not replicate the physical books properties good enough they are just digital versions of content that also exist in print. This content is not actually meant to ever leave the wintel desktop and in most case not even the browser.

Theres a rather complex licensing deal involved when a library provide this kind of service to it’s patron, that looks a bit like those in use between music industry and radio stations.

This kind of things is actually happening just not in the field of literary fiction, and the model ends up looking nothing like anyones retro futuristic vision of the ebook.

For example, a mobile collection of ebooks with 31 titles called “Career Development & Business Self-Help” costs $1,000. A “Young Adult Fiction” collection with 24 titles costs $500. Here is an excerpt about the service:

Once you have purchased a Sony Mobile collection, you can make the Sony Reader available to your library’s users for on-site or off-site circulation. Using your PC, simply download a mobile collection title or titles from the NetLibrary site and transfer to the Sony Reader. It’s that easy. You can also purchase additional Sony Readers from OCLC at a preferred price.

Of course lower prices and greater flexibility are always desirable.

I am aware of the downloadable content from services like Overdrive. My point is that the devices are still locked up in ToS that as bad or worse as the DRM that locks up the books. As a librarian, I want to be able to lend the devices as well as the content. And I’d be willing to pay for the privilege.

These companies have already done the negotiation with the Publishers to establish the terms (acceptable DRM, devices etc…)

If you choose to go your own route, then yes you will need to negotiate your own deals with the Publishers.

None of my local libraries will touch ebooks. (They’ve literally turned up their noses then looked down them at the idea.) The local library system is actually in a college town, whereas my close library is a small one, hardly more than 3000ft in size. Neither will deal with them. Amazon’s control factor is making me more leery by the day.

There is no love for ebooks here as far as libraries go, and I find that a real shame.

There will have to be changes made, but just like through the rest of industry, it will be a slow and painful process.

(Of course, these libraries themselves have a fundamental flaw: it’s easy to crack the DRM and get free-forever e-books out of them.)

This issue highlights the fact that public information handling and dissemination needs to change as badly as retail distribution channels. In fact, the modern library system needs to re-examine its role in an era of digitally available books–remember, libraries were initially created because books were hard to get and few in number. Digital removes that essential limitation, and creates a brand new distribution equation. Just as the publishers and distributors need to come to grips with the 21st century, so does the traditional library.

I think AndyW’s article is on the right track, but like so many, he should be thinking further outside of the 20th century “box” at more effective and practical methods of e-book distribution than tying them to loanable devices (which just brings the limitation issue back, at just the time when limitation can finally be removed). The libraries should be bypassing the device sellers, going straight to the publishers, creating new sharing and distribution models, and concentrating on standardized formats that anyone can use on the device of their choice.

That’s the future of the library… not arranging hardware deals with Amazon.

I can just see the publishers salivating over a world without any free access to books, a world where all information is under their monopolistic control, allowing them to profit exclusively and please their masters on Wall Street. With such a dark dream on the horizon, why would they willingly give it up to create a system where people could access their books — even temporarily — for free?

Once again, why does everybody fail to see that copyright is the problem here? Without copyright, these problems would not even be worth mentioning. And I doubt there is anyone here who would claim that borrowing books from a library was not a Natural Right, a Right of Access to Knowledge. Even the publishers who are developing ways to circumvent that Right would not dare to contradict it openly.

So, the question stands: What can be done to force the publishers to respect our Natural Rights and Fair Use? Is there a method, short of abolishing copyright, that would allow the libraries to lend or give e-books to users of all potential e-book readers (including HTML enabled smartphones)?