Douglas County Libraries makes the news again. This time, as the motivation for Bibliotheca to adopt an open source platform for econtent delivery (www.bibliotheca.com/ebook). Here is more from the press release:
Rotkreuz, Switzerland – Tuesday 19th June
Bibliotheca, the leading global developer and supplier of technologies designed to enhance library efficiency and the user experience, is partnering with the library community to facilitate adoption of open source platforms for the delivery of electronic content. The company will build upon the concepts originally designed and developed by the Douglas County Libraries, CO (DCL) to enable libraries, first in North America and then around the globe, to meet the many challenges that the emerging world of eBooks presents.
Monique Sendze, Associate Director of Information Technology at DCL, will be joining Bibliotheca to lead a new Bibliotheca eBook division. “My heart belongs to libraries and I have devoted many of my waking hours over the past two years to making DCL’s eBook solution a reality. I am excited by the opportunity to take what I’ve learned at DCL to make eBooks more affordable and user friendly for libraries and their patrons throughout the world.”
Objectives of Bibliotheca’s eBook model include lower acquisition costs through a library cooperative buying platform, seamless integration with all major ILS to create a user-friendly environment for patrons, and expansion of digital content made available by publishers to libraries. Bibliotheca looks to help the library community achieve these objectives through installation, customization, technical support and hosting services.
“We at DCL came to the conclusion that the existing eBook models did not present a viable long term eBook solution, functionally or financially,” states Director Jamie LaRue. “The DCL model is predicated on ownership, discounts, and integration. Bibliotheca’s eagerness to test and take our model to the global market is significant – a game-changer. It has the potential to restore purchasing power to libraries, predictability and fairness to the publishing environment, and greater access to content for our public.”
Shai Robkin, President of Bibliotheca in the Americas states: “We have been paying close attention to the frustrations libraries have expressed with the existing eBook delivery models while, at the same time, watching the exciting work being done at DCL. While our focus to date has been on providing libraries with the best tools possible for managing their physical collections, we are uniquely positioned to provide them with robust e-content delivery solutions. In this context, we are also excited by the potential to integrate eBook delivery into our existing self-service kiosks.”
About Bibliotheca
Bibliotheca is the world’s largest company dedicated to the development, deployment and support of library technology solutions, designed to improve operational efficiency and enhance customer service. We focus on public, private and academic library markets. Our reach extends across the globe, with direct operational offices in North America, Europe and Australia, together with a range of distributors covering Asia, Africa and Latin America. We are proud to work with over 3,500 unique library sites with a deployed equipment range in excess of 5,000 individual self-service units and over 100 automated materials handling (sorter) systems. In satisfying this range of customers, Bibliotheca has deployed well over 200 million RFID labels to the library sector alone, and continues to supply in excess of 50 million each year.
For more information on eBooks please visit:www.bibliotheca.com/ebook
Contact information
For more information on this release, please contact: info@bibliotheca.com
[Via No Shelf Required]
While Monique’s departure from Douglas County is a loss for Jamie and his crew, this nonetheless showcases yet again the vision and thought leadership coming out of this library system. How e-books get served up to the public via libraries is the hottest topic of the past 3 years, and once again, Jamie is bringing bold vision, leadership and innovation to the table. This is a development to watch closely, for sure. Behind all great thinking usually stands some pretty great people.
When I visited the linked site and read a bit there, I discovered that they are committed to the application of DRM. At http://www.bibliotheca.com/1/index.php/ebooks they say, “Bibliotheca will … provide a secure Digital Rights Management environment in which publishers can deliver content.”
Returning here, I re-read, “facilitate adoption of open source platforms for the delivery of electronic content” as their prime directive.
So, the delivery platforms will be open but the content, the eBooks, won’t. Did I get that right?