Doody’s Core Titles, June 9, 2020. https://www.doody.com/dct/ PublicFeaturedArticle.asp?SiteContentID=350 Kubilius, Ramune and Linda Walton. 2002. “E-Books/ Web-Based Medical Textbooks.” Handout presented at Health Sciences Lively Lunch at the Charleston Conference: Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition. Charleston, SC, November 1, 2002. https://doi.org/10.18131/g3-rbk4-sj05 Laera, Elizabeth, Karen Gutzman, Angela Spencer, Charlotte Beyer, Saskia Bolore, John Gallagher, Sean Pidgeon, and Ryan Rodriguez. 2021. “Why are they not accessing it? User barriers to clinical information access.” Journal of the Medical Library Association 109, no. 1 (January): 126-132. https://doi. org/10.5195/jmla.2021.1051 Lugg, Rick and Ruth Fischer. 2001. “The Host with the Most: eBook Distribution to Libraries.” Against the Grain 13 no. 6 (December): 35-40. https://doi.org/10.7771/2380-176X.3646
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Licensing and Interlibrary Lending of Whole eBooks By Michael Rodriguez (Collections Strategist, UConn Library, University of Connecticut) <michaelr@uconn.edu>
Introduction Print books and individual electronic book chapters have a long history of getting shared among libraries through interlibrary loan (ILL). However, library-held eBooks, because libraries license them rather than own them outright, generally cannot be lent in their entirety to a borrowing library’s users without explicit permission from licensors (usually publishers). The licensing and interlibrary lending of whole eBooks is an essential next step in making eBooks more accessible, shareable, user-friendly, and truly viable as alternatives to print. This article uses the University of Connecticut’s pilot program as a springboard for making the case for whole-eBook ILL.
Guiding Principles A fundamental guiding principle of eBooks must be that use cases are facilitated, not foiled, by the content’s electronic format. eBooks must offer the value-adds of electronic formats, such as keyword searching, viewing on various computers and devices, multiple concurrent users, and accessibility for users with print disabilities. eBooks must support the full spectrum of users and use cases, from looking up a fact or reference to reading a whole book cover to cover. However, eBooks must also preserve the portability and shareability of the print book reading experience. Publishers should paginate texts. Users should be free to retain eBooks for later viewing offline, annotate and mark up copies, and share with colleagues. They must be able to interact with the texts through whichever electronic format (e.g., PDF, EPUB, or JPEG) is most suited to their use case. Whenever possible, publishers must offer reasonably priced eBook options to libraries for all titles they sell. Last but not least, libraries must be allowed to share whole eBooks via ILL.
Functional Requirements In order for whole-eBook ILL to address the full range of use cases and sustain the best elements of the print reading
Against the Grain / September 2021
experience, publishers should eschew digital rights management (DRM). DRM creates frustrating barriers for users, e.g., imposing time limits on reading, forcing users to download third-party software such as Adobe Digital Editions, and/or barring the making of personal copies. The industry shift toward DRM-free eBooks has accelerated in recent years, with hundreds of university presses and commercial publishers alike opening up their content. JSTOR and Project Muse provide DRM-free eBooks by default, while ProQuest, EBSCO, and other major distributors have seen their publisher partners increasingly embrace DRM-free sales. The next step on the road to true DRM-free status is enabling one-click download of full eBooks accessed via academic libraries. Many publishers already offer one-click downloads by default. These industry leaders include Walter de Gruyter, Springer, Wiley, Taylor & Francis, and many “The licensing smaller presses via ProQuest and and interlibrary EBSCO. Other publishers still restrict downloads to lending of whole the chapter level only. eBooks is an But if users cannot obessential next tain a full eBook with step in making one click, they must laboriously download eBooks more chapters one at a time accessible, — frequently 20-plus shareable, userchapters per book — and organize the PDFs on their comfriendly, and puter. Lack of a one-click download truly viable as option is frustrating for readers who alternatives to want to search the entire text or read print.” the book cover to cover. This shortcoming also makes whole-eBook ILL hard to scale, as it requires library staff to replicate this clunky user experience with each book lent. Publisher platforms should build in key functionalities like one-click downloading by default.
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