The Library Futures organisation has created the following principles for library ownership of digital books:
- Libraries must be able to purchase and own digital books.
- Libraries must preserve digital books.
- Libraries must provide access to digital books.
- Libraries must protect reader privacy.
This proposal is actually quite different from the current environment, in which libraries can purchase perpetual access to digital books but there are still limitations on what they can do with those books. In most ebook models:
- Libraries can purchase perpetual access to digital books, but they don’t own the books in the same sense as owning a print book.
- Many publishers restrict the kind of preservation activities libraries can perform, for example by not granting libraries permission to host files locally.
- Libraries are not allowed to provide access to an entire ebook through interlibrary loan, though there are some exceptions.
- Many publishers transfer reader data to third-party vendors, which goes against the library value of protecting patron privacy.
These principles are not binding, but they are intended to foster trust between libraries and publishers. Significantly, they outline a vision in which publishers agree that libraries may treat digital books in the same way that they treat print books. It remains to be seen what impact these principles will have on the digital book environment, but hopefully publishers will be more receptive to reducing restrictions on library ownership of digital books.