Abstract

Spanish public libraries are faced with the scarce implementation of digital loans among their readers. The offer of this service, fragmented in several platforms, and its lack of integration with other resources such as the online catalog implies a greater effort of adaptation for users and places the libraries themselves at a disadvantage. Through a system of indicators, the 3 main Spanish e-book loan platforms [OdiloTK (from Odilo), Xebook (from Xercode), and iBiblio (from Libranda)] are evaluated through their implementation in eBiblio Galicia, Galician Catalog of GaliciaLe (CGG) and eBookVigo / eBook DiCoruña, respectively. There is evidence of the differences between them and a need to provide a unique and integrated access to the functions provided by discovery tools and APIs.

Abstract

Despite the investment of economic and human resources made by Spanish public libraries to create digital collections while continuing to play their traditional role as mediators between users, technology, and reading, there are conditioning factors that make it difficult for e-book lending to be integrated as yet another service within those provided by libraries and to be fully accepted by readers. With the aim of identifying the elements underlying the slow consolidation of digital lending, a literature review was carried out to determine the state of the art, mainly in both the USA and Spain, the e-book market aimed at Spanish public libraries is analyzed, the technological difficulties involved in lending and downloading for users are presented, and the influence of the measures adopted by the publishing sector and public administrations are examined. The need to make license commercialization models more flexible, simplify digital rights management systems, and decouple collections from electronic lending platforms, as well as avoid the dispersion of library resources across various interfaces, is highlighted.