The Occam's Reader Project – comprising Texas Tech University, the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, and the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) – and STM publisher Springer have entered into an agreement to run a pilot program with GWLA's 33 members, focused on eBook interlibrary loans (ILL). This is the first major collaboration of its kind between academic libraries and a major publisher. It is expected that the year-long project could revolutionise the way libraries share books in a digital world.
At the center of the project lies Occam's Reader, new software developed by the Design & Development Team at Texas Tech University Libraries and the Web Interface Development Team at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa Libraries, in collaboration with Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA). Occam's Reader creates a process for requesting, processing and delivering eBooks. ILL has always been possible under the terms of Springer eBook licenses, but previously there was no process for doing so. By integrating with the existing ILLiad framework, Occam's Reader should make eBook ILL part of libraries' everyday workflow.
The many features of Occam's Reader make this a win-win situation for both GWLA members and Springer. Benefits include secure online access to borrowed books, compliance with copyright laws and licensing provisions, reporting of usage statistics and the ability to take advantage of existing Springer features, such as location- and device-agnostic access. Both eBook chapters and full eBooks from Springer are included in the pilot.
