The 2011 Dialogue between Librarians and International Publishers took place in Beijing on August 29, on the occasion of the Beijing International Book Fair. The forum, under the heading 'Digital Publishing and Long-Term Preservation', was organised by the China National Publications Import & Export Corporation and the Library Society of China. The event attracted more than 150 Chinese and international librarians and publishers.
Derk Haank, CEO of Springer Science+Business Media, spoke on 'Usage Development and the Impact of eBooks', presenting a case study and data on e-book use at a major Chinese university. In general, e-book usage is much higher than anticipated given that there is no quantitative limitation on usage and no DRM, it was observed. Also, e-books are used for quick fact extraction in addition to print. The discoverability of e-books is also higher which means that they have a longer 'shelf life'. Interest in older titles and tertiary level content is seen to be high.
Other speakers at the forum represented the National Science Library of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Science and Technology Library and Oxford University Press. Individual presentations were followed by a panel discussion, which included topics such as semantic tagging, open linking, Chinese laws and regulations concerning preservation, e-book backlists, mobile access authentication and the preservation of print books.
On the same day, at the annual China Book International Foreign Expert Meeting, Haank was reappointed to a further five year term as the advisor for the STM publishing sector. That meeting was organised by China's State Council Information Office and the General Administration of Press and Publication.
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