LF Principles for Digital Ownership
/Library Futures has gathered a knowledgeable group* to develop principles under which libraries will own rather than license ebooks/digital audiobooks.
As noted in the principles, licensing may have its place. It all depends on terms, with cost obviously being the most significant of those terms. Something fairly priced that would better allow working through long reserve lists on new best sellers is welcome. But digital ownership would enable libraries to fulfill their missions as we do with print—acquisition of a deep and diverse collection, patron access, preservation as necessary—without the ruinous budgetary costs licenses generally tend to bring. Libraries were never intended to be feeding troughs for fat corporations and venture capitalists ceaselessly gorging on public funds.
We are told “These Principles on Library Ownership of Digital Books, including e-books and
e-audiobooks, were developed in order to establish a foundation of trust between publishers and libraries, so that publishers may sell, rather than merely license, permanent copies of digital books to libraries, and libraries are empowered to build and maintain permanent digital collections.”
Five principles are enumerated, allowing libraries the following:
Purchase digital books and maintain possession of the digital books or have the digital books hosted by a third party of their choice as part of their permanent collections.
Maintain digital books in a manner that allows them to be accessed, including by updating file formats, as necessary, to ensure compatibility with contemporary equipment and best practices for service.
Lend digital books, including to patrons of another library via interlibrary loan.
Transfer digital books within their own systems (e.g., when migrating them from one server to another), to other libraries, or to third-party hosting providers to store on their behalf.
Maintain reader privacy.
But each brings responsibilities. Libraries must ensure the ongoing fidelity of the texts, respect copyright, prevent abuse, and in general live up to reasonable expectations.
It’s a good start. RF thanks LF and the all-star team they assembled: * Lila Bailey (Internet Archive), Charlie Barlow (Boston Library Consortium), Maria Bustillos (journalist and founding editor of Brick House Cooperative), Becky Chambers (UC Berkeley Project LEND), Greg Cram (New York Public Library), Jennie Rose Halperin (Library Futures), Dave Hansen (Authors Alliance), Nate Hill (METRO), Micah May (DPLA), Michael Weinberg (NYU Engelberg Center), Michelle Wu (former dean of Georgetown Law Library) and Juliya Ziskina (Ebooks Study Group).
Some publishers are already offering digital titles for sale to libraries. Thanks to those! Let’s hope these principles will open a door for more of them. I have high hopes for many Indie publisher. RF doubts any of the Big 5 will come in. They seem—and their lobbyist certain is!—in lock-step with big media to ensure a license economy in which libraries, and consumers, ultimately own nothing. Look at how the pack piles on to a bunch of lies over a bill that would legitimately level the playing field for libraries. But in the Principle’s spirit of a “foundation of trust between publishers and libraries,” I’ll try not to be quite so realisti . . . umm, cynical. Maybe some year there will be a surprise.