Toward a digital library ownership model

If priced fairly—a HUGE if—licensing of library digital content is useful and even helpful. But all too often, libraries end up having to re-license books they have already paid for once, or twice, or even many times, often under ruinous terms, at least when compared to our ROI in print. Are you tired of the paying over and over, of the keeping track of what and how often you’ll need to renew, and of seldom being able actually to EXPAND your digital collection?

Me too!

That’s why this news from the Digital Public Library of America of an ownership model is so welcome. Here’s a link to the full story—well worth a read!—and here’s the most important part of today’s announcement from the DPLA’s Micah May:

While the intellectual case for library ownership is strong, practical solutions have been difficult to come by. In particular, few libraries have the capacity, or interest, in building the tech infrastructure required to host hundreds of thousands of ebooks. Thankfully, one thing has changed since library ownership was first pioneered a decade ago: We now have a library-driven platform for management and delivery of e-content, The Palace Project. Having heard the renewed interest from libraries in ownership of digital content, we set out to explore whether The Palace Project platform could offer a solution.

In short, in the model we are developing, libraries would own the titles, just as they do with physical books. Libraries would be able to both transfer their books to other libraries and to update books as needed for preservation or to adapt to new formats. Rights holders would retain copyright to their works and all subsidiary rights. Lending would be restricted to one reader at a time with Digital Rights Management (DRM) unless waived by the rights holder.  We would also provide libraries the option of hosting their books in Palace Marketplace or another provider.

We are developing this model through conversations with a number of leading librarians and legal experts, including at a workshop this fall convened at NYU by Jennie Rose Halperin of Library Futures. We have also been discussing this model with publishers and book distributors; while these conversations are in an early stage, we are buoyed by the feedback we are receiving. We hope to be able to roll out an implementation of this model in the first half of 2024. If you’d like to talk more about digital ownership or The Palace Project, please reach out to me at micah@dp.la.

A variety of fairly priced models, with ownership, metered licensing, and subscriptions/pay-per-use could help libraries use their limited $$$ wisely. Owning might, for example, perhaps initially cost more but allow for long-term preservation while short-term demand would be met by other options. Ownership could make many purchases that seem less viable under licensing seem attractive, bringing greater attention to newer, perhaps more diverse authors. Publishers, we won’t spend less if you give us better deals. Why not try something new?