The Labour Party in the United Kingdom is calling for an independent task force to evaluate the notion of lending ebooks. The entire library system is finding that many big name publishers are steadfastly against the notion of customers getting digital content for free because they feel it devalues the books.
Dan Jarvis MP, Labor’s Shadow Culture Minister, said publicly: “Today, I am calling for the Government to convene an effective and credible task-force to explore e-book lending – which should consist of librarians, authors and publishers and be chaired by an independent expert. If the Government wants libraries to move into the 21st Century, and wants to protect the value of books, Ed Vaizey needs to act on this now.”
It will be interesting to follow this story and see how it develops. If the government can mandate that publishers adhere to a lending scheme to follow accordance laws, it could be a boon for library patrons. It could also give a boost to 3M and Overdrive’s ambitions to woo even more libraries into doing business with them and facilitate digital content delivery systems.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
