Report available on eBook Feasibility Study for Public Libraries
The final report includes library leader interview findings and industry expert interview findings and scenarios for action.
In the fall of 2009, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) began an internal conversation about eBooks. What will they mean to the future of libraries, especially public libraries? Will these institutions be able to turn around digital format to its advantage, as they have with audiobooks? Or is it different this time? COSLA members, which includes State Librarian Mary Wegner, wanted to arm themselves for action, instead of waiting to see how commercial forces would impact popular reading materials and the public library's central role in providing them.
The report presents findings from interviews with library leaders in libraries large and small throughout the country, and interviews with over a dozen eBook industry experts, followed by suggested scenarios for action by COSLA and others. The original goal of the Task Force was to investigate the question of whether COSLA needed to do something to ensure that low-cost eReader devices would be available in the near future for library customers. The Task Force concluded that they needn't worry. New devices are beginning to flood the market and prices are dropping fast.
In this report, you can read concerns and ideas about access and ease of use for library eBooks, library purchasing models, shifting relationships with vendors and publishers, cost and selection, copyright and fair use, and how to make the public library's voice heard as eBooks change how people read for leisure and learning. COSLA found new roles for public libraries and ways that COSLA could help provide leadership.
Read the COSLA report. (PDF)
