At a recent meeting, the governing board of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) endorsed a background paper on digital lending. The paper is now available in a downloadable version. The IFLA governing board had appointed a working group to draft the background paper as part of its work on the 2011-2012 Key Initiatives.
The paper attempts to provide an overview of the issues relating to e-books in libraries; summarise the current positions of publishers in both the scholarly publishing and trade publishing sectors; summarise the differences in the way that academic/research libraries and public libraries address the issue of digital collections; address the legal context for e-lending and library principles that must be upheld in any suitable models; and provide a detailed legal analysis of e-lending.
The e-lending environment is seen to be changing rapidly at this point in time, and the paper will be reassessed in the coming months in light of any significant developments. Revisions of the paper may take place in light of any assessment.
Interested parties may download the IFLA e-Lending background paper at http://www.ifla.org/files/clm/publications/ifla_background_paper_e-lending_0.pdf.
