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The problem with saying you "own" an ebook is that there's nothing tangible to own. A copy of a file isn't a unique distinct object.
Let's start with paper books (because ISTM that this notion of owning an ebook usually comes by analogy with paper books). There are two things you can own relating to a paper book - first is the object itself, the bound collection of sheets of paper. The second is the rights to the contents, the story or information. Unfortunately we tend to refer to both as a "book" as in "pass me that book from the shelf" as well as "I just wrote a book about sparkly vampires". The former could be an empty notebook with blank pages and the later could only exist on a PC hard-drive.
So when you buy a paper book what do you buy and what do you own? The physical object. You can do what you like with it. You can lend it to people, you can sell it on, you can keep it whereever you like, you can destroy it if you want. What you definitely do not own is the rights to the contents. You can't make copies of it, except by permission of the rights-owner or by exceptions to copyright allowed by law (Fair Use/Fair Dealing).
Now with ebooks there is still the intangible contents and the rights associated with it but what about the physical object? There is one but it's one you already own - it's your PC or reading device. So what is it that you've "bought"? Have you bought the rights to the contents of the book? No, you can't start publishing your own copies and selling them. The problem is that other than your device there's no discrete object to own. A file is an abstract concept, represented in the real world by a piece of computer memory, or a pattern of bytes on a hard-drive, memory card or storage device. Also any time you access it you are copying at least parts of it. So at any one time there are probably multiple copies of that file - which is the discrete object I own?, all of them? I created these copies (including the very first download) by my actions, so if I can "own" a copy of a file that I myself create then surely I can create new copies deliberately and because I now own them I can give them to others? If I can't do what I like with the copies I create then I don't really own them do I?
And to put that into the context of this thread "I" could be a library with thousands of potential lenders. If the library truly owned an ebook then it could lend it out as many times as it liked to as many people for as long as it liked. It could give it away or re-sell it.
The reality is that ebooks are different to paper books. In one you buy the physical media, and are licensed to use the content on that media. In the other you merely copy the contents onto your already existing media. In both cases you own the media (paper, device) but not the rights to the contents.[*]
So whatever the solution is for libraries it revolves around getting the right licensing terms from the publishers. It does not involve "realizing" that they "own" the ebooks they paid for and then flouting copyright law.
([*]In actual fact you get more rights with an ebook because with a paper book you don't get the right to make X number of copies. Of course the fact is you lose some utility - ability to lend etc - but that comes from the difference in the media not the rights. It's not that you have more rights with a paper book it's that most people are more willing to lend it because it's less valuable than an ereader and doesn't deprive you of reading other books whilst it's gone.)
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