CILDC : Building eBook Platforms: by and for libraries

Michele Farrell (IMLS)

Funding from IMLS is being used to 

• purchase ebooks
• Overdrive was purchased and now owned by a Japanese company.
• Consolidation in the industry 
• Including resources for young people
• AWE stations
• Tumble books
• Funding is used to train staff and users
• Ebook reader have been purchased with IMLS funding
• Make sure that the readers have accessibility features

Monique Sendze (Douglas County Libraries, Colorado) 

• DCL ebook model project
• They developed their own ebook platform
• Did it as a reaction to things happening in the industry
• Guided by (pros)
• Discounts (25-50% from publishers)
• Ownership (don't have to worry about mergers in the industry)
• Integration (helped to break silos for the patrons)
• Went after small, emerging and self-published content, library created content, and larger distributor titles.
• It was a pro that the library could be a platform - a content producer
• They are still an Overdrive and 3M library
• They work with 45 titles, 900 imprints, 45000 titles
• Took $600000 to run the program - tech, content, development and staff
• Launched in 2011
• In 2012 and 2013 other libraries in Colorado wanted to adopt the model
• eVoke Colorado
• Received funding from IMLS
• Alpha deployed in 2014
• Opening day collection
• Dedicated $11,000
• 1200 titles
• 462 titles from Project Guttenberg
• How do other libraries do this?
• It takes people, technology and processes - and a lot of each
• It is not easy 
• No one library system should take this own without considering the return on investment
• Among the pros, they have access to all of their data, which they can use to understand and better serve their community.
• Cons
• Are you serving your patrons or a software development shop?
• The time and effort needed for negotiating with publishers.
• Managing the other ebook content.
• Curating content from the self-publishing efforts.  Few review sources.  Need to keep an eye on quality.
• Suggestions
• Who really owns the contents that is purchased, if your in a consortium?
• Partnerships - join forces with neighboring libraries.
• Consider all business models
• Establish good measures of success
• Circulation is not a measure of success
• Created a crosswalk for the creation of MARC records. Having given the tool to OCLC so others can use it.
• What's next?
• Need to figure out how to keep eVoke going.
• Hoping that their model will become a national model.

Amanda Jacobs Foust (Califa Library Group)

• Enki - enkilibrary.org - an ebook platform by libraries for libraries.
• Began in 2011.  Followed the Douglas County Model.
• 80 libraries
• Did it for less money than Diuglas County
• Launched in beta in 2013
• Open source code
• Nelly 40000 titles, including 5000 self published titles 
• They own their content
• Have moved out of beta
• Tip - Need to educate staff on why this is the way to go, and get them to tell patrons about it.

Questions:

• What do think about the Ebooks is forever collection?  Seems promising. The book needs to have a significant number of reviews, in order to be included in the collection.
• Question on the purchase of ebooks with federal funds.  Organizations need to meet the federal regulations, e.g., accessibilty.  Yes there are strings attached.
• [complicated question] Answer: Want to pursue a national marketplace for acquisitions.  Need to negotiate contracts that allow for better use.
• What does the indie publisher community need to know?  DCL is working with the community to teach them about being good publishers, so their works can be used by Iibraries.  (Library as publisher)