Tag: licensing

Do Audiobooks Count as Reading? (Spoiler: YES!)

Anth SinnottLeave a comment

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the Great Audiobook Debate. It sounds like a wrestling match in the book club, and honestly, it sometimes feels like one. You know the scene: you’re excited to discuss a new book, and you mention, “Oh, I listened to the audiobook,” only to have someone reply, “So, you didn’t actually read it?” Cue the eye-roll.

It’s an exhausting, circular argument, as old as audiobooks themselves and it’s one of those knotty problems that book lovers and library folks get stuck on.

It’s not as simple as “this one is good” and “this one is bad.” But, since you’re here, my professional opinion is a resounding YES, and you can tell them that a Librarian told you so.

Now, before anyone grabs their pitchforks (or their physical copies of War and Peace), let’s unpack this.

Image by Ri Butov from Pixabay

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5 Inconvenient Facts All Librarians Should Know About E-Books

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, the promise of the digital library became clearer than ever. As physical doors closed, e-books offered a vital lifeline, foregrounding the incredible potential of on-demand access to information and culture. Yet this moment of digital promise also cast a harsh light on the dysfunctional infrastructure, predatory business models, and outdated legal frameworks that govern the lending of digital content.

For librarians on the front lines, the digital dream often clashes with a difficult daily reality. While lending a physical book is a straightforward and established process, licensing a digital one is complex, expensive, and often deeply frustrating. This has ignited a “palpable and widespread dissatisfaction” among library professionals who see a growing disconnect between their public mission and the commercial constraints of the e-book market.

This article uncovers five of the most impactful and often counter-intuitive realities that shape the world of e-lending today, revealing the hidden complexities that exist just beyond the reader’s click.

Image by Eli Digital Creative from Pixabay

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5 Facts All Librarians Should Know About Interlibrary Loans

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The UKSG Insights article ‘Interlibrary loans, subscriptions and copyright in the UK academic library sector’ by my White Rose comrade, from University of Sheffield, Andrew Johnson, is an excellent summary of the current ILL situation, considering legal exceptions and some of the legislative grey areas that exist within the ecosystem.

I would encourage everyone to read it, as an educational and insightful explainer of complicated issues. I would also encourage anyone interested in expanding knowledge in this sphere of Librarianship to use ‘Exceptions for Libraries’ by renowned fonts of ILL knowledge Chris Morrison and Jane Secker as a good practical starting point.

Regarding Interlending, ILL, Interlibrary Loans, or whatever nomenclature you prefer to use, here are 5 facts that all Librarians should know…

Image by Nino Carè from Pixabay

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EBA v DDA – Which is best?

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I posted on Linkedin a while ago about my overall views on EBA schemes, particularly in relation to DDA (or PDA) alternatives. I waffled on and ran out of words, happily now that I’ve set this blog up that is no longer an issue. So here is a post on all things EBA and DDA, happy reading.

What is an EBA?

An Evidence-Based Acquisition (EBA) scheme is a library acquisition model for digital content, most commonly e-books, where the library pays an upfront fee for a set period of time (usually a year) to provide its users with unlimited access to a large collection of titles from a publisher or aggregator.

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Ranking E-Book Licenses: A Tier List for Preference-Based Decisions

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We all know that e-book licenses can be intentionally complex and confusing. The difficulty often lies in choosing between licenses that seem similar on the surface. For that reason, understanding the nuances of different licensing models is key to making better purchasing decisions. This ranking system provides a clear hierarchy for the most common types of e-book licenses, helping you to make preference-based decisions.

Note: This post is a list based purely on the elements of the license itself. In reality, other factors like price and the presence of robust and configurable auto-upgrade systems often play a huge role in the final decision.

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