IFLA WLIC 2022 Satellite - E books: where are we heading?

WLIC EBooks Satellite Workshop – Where are we heading?

Description

Ebooks are an essential part of the collections of most public and academic libraries globally. During COVID use has increased significantly consuming an increasing amount of our budgets, management and energy.

After more than a decade of mainstream library use of ebooks and less than satisfactory outcomes from negotiations with publishers and suppliers the ebook crisis continues with libraries continuing to be impacted by increasing and unpredictable license costs, restrictive licensing terms and restrictions on content availability.

Yet there is another pressing issue and one less discussed by librarians – how is the very mission of the library

transformed by the demand for ebooks? What does it mean for our physical spaces, for our core mission and what risks does it pose for our future?

Objectives

Through a combination of speakers and workshop sessions this satellite meeting will seek to set a future agenda to inform IFLA's and our profession’s future advocacy, and thought leadership around ebooks. The workshop’s objectives are to:

• Understand the current state of affairs

o Understand which country/library organisation is in favour of what

o Gather evidence issues and evidence from across the globe

• Workshop and evaluate solutions on the table

o Understand what each solution entails

o Advantages and disadvantages of each

o What actions need to be taken to implement the solution?

o What resources are needed to support the actions?

o What suits your library type best?

• Understand the price of success

o How do eBooks change the library’s mission?

o What infrastructure will we need to deliver eLending if the barriers in front of us are removed? What resources? What staff skills

o Are the risks of success too great?

• What is needed to inform policy and advocacy

o What are the evidence gaps?

o What research questions are there to pursue?

• Identify IFLA’s future role in this area

o In light of the above, what do we want IFLA to do?

o What is the best mechanism for IFLA to do it i.e. where does responsibility for eLending lie?

o What is the relationship between IFLA HQ (Policy and Advocacy unit), IFLA CLM (sometime home of eLending), IFLA Public Libraries/Academic libraries/any other section with an interest/KR21?

o Outcome can be a request to IFLA

Programme

9.30 Welcome and Introductions

9.40 Keynotes

The Big Overview (Rebecca Giblin)

Keynote 2: COVID refocuses the Problem: eBooks SOS in the UK and Ireland (Johanna Anderson and Cathal McCauley)

10.40 Coffee

11.10 Keynote 3: In Parts, Progress: The ‘parasitoidism’ problem (Mikkel Christoffersen)

11.40 Current State of Affairs Roundtables: Max five min interventions from each country attending (further details to be shared after registration)

13.10 Lunch

13.55 Solutions Workshops: Breakout groups with discussion initiated by lightning talks.

a) Market Investigations (Caroline Ball/Johanna Anderson)

b) eLending Exceptions/CDL (Ben White/Kyle Courtney)

c) ‘Fair and Reasonable’ licensing (Arne Upmeier)

d) Reporting back to plenary

15.25 Coffee and an afternoon relaxing (!) thinking Break: We own the Infrastructure and we’ve Succeeded! What happens now?

16.05 Wrap-up: What do we want IFLA to do?

16.25 Fin

Image: "The future of books" by Johan Larsson is licensed under CC BY 2.0.