Action Items:
E-Book Lending

Use these action items and brainstorm other tangible ways to further develop your knowledge of e-book lending or consider local adoption of the practice.

Form an e-book lending taskforce

Identify the individuals at your institution from various disciplines (resource sharing, licensing, systems management) and discuss how your library might approach the implementation of e-book ILL lending. Consider what approaches you might take based on the publishers you license content from, the systems that you use, and the staffing models in place at your library.

 

Review existing licenses for e-book ILL language

Audit your existing e-book collection licenses and determine if the language included permits e-book ILL rights. Compare any clauses with sample licenses from other libraries or consortia and establish a plan to engage with vendors to modify licenses and include these provisions. 

 

Connect with others who currently lend e-books

Review the E-Book ILL Lender Tracker and reach out to libraries actively lending e-books to learn from their experience with different publishers and systems in facilitating this approach to digital lending. 

 

Advocate with vendors for DRM-free e-book ILL

Where vendors may be less inclined to align with the Principles on Library Ownership of Digital Books, advocate with publishers for allowing DRM-free ILL of their e-book collections in alignment with the values and needs of your library, your own collections analysis, and the talking points from Rodriguez and Denker. 

 

Share your experiences with e-book lending

If your library currently lends e-books through interlibrary loan, openly discuss your efforts with other practitioners and libraries. Describe what worked, what didn’t, your process for establishing the practice at your institution, how you process requests, or how you plan to sustain the service going forward.