CLA
Key Library Priorities for e-Content
- Availability: Commercially available e-content should be available from all publishers for lending by libraries at their time of publication. Libraries need continuous access to content to build core collections and ensure customer needs are met.
- Fairness and Flexibility: A range of pricing options and terms need to be available to libraries to allow them to develop collections of different size, range and focus. (Licensing models should not be subject to unreasonable premiums and price increases, time and use restrictions that prevent libraries of all sizes from establishing diverse collections.)
- Access, Preservation and Research: Libraries must be able to maintain digital access within license terms and the ability to copy a digital text for historical preservation purposes and/or print disabled accessibility, if required, such as in the case of orphan works, and text mining for research purposes (academic libraries.)
- Resource Sharing: Resource sharing through mechanisms such as interlibrary loan, consortiums, and reciprocal borrowing, need to be available for e-content. For instance, interlibrary loan of monographs could be established based on the principle that ‘one copy remains one copy’, meaning that users of the lending library would not have access to the work if it is on interlibrary loan.
- Transferability: Libraries need the ability to transfer content to another platform within the terms of the existing license to ensure libraries are not bound to a particular platform.
- Protection of Privacy: Libraries and their users must be able to make informed decisions about the control and use of personal information including reading choices. Libraries seek the option to minimize the transmission of personal information that can be linked to individual users.
Last Updated: February 3, 2015