What about national libraries?

[Kumabjorn]

National libraries like British Library, Library of Congress, Royal Libraries in Scandinavian countries etc have a special obligation to accumulate everything published in a certain country. Their collections are simply enormous. Don't they also have that obligation with regard to electronic publishing? Wouldn't that imply that they can lend e-books to the general public? After all, it is their taxes that pay for the collections.

[Andrew H.]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

National libraries like British Library, Library of Congress, Royal Libraries in Scandinavian countries etc have a special obligation to accumulate everything published in a certain country. Their collections are simply enormous. Don't they also have that obligation with regard to electronic publishing? Wouldn't that imply that they can lend e-books to the general public? After all, it is their taxes that pay for the collections.

Are these libraries lending libraries?

[ucfgrad93]

I don't think that you can walk into the Library of Congress and check out a book.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

I don't think that you can walk into the Library of Congress and check out a book.

You actually can - if you're a Congressman or a Senator.

But no, National Libraries are, generally-speaking, reference libraries. They have a reading room in which you read the books that you wish to consult.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

National libraries like British Library, Library of Congress, Royal Libraries in Scandinavian countries etc have a special obligation to accumulate everything published in a certain country. Their collections are simply enormous. Don't they also have that obligation with regard to electronic publishing? Wouldn't that imply that they can lend e-books to the general public? After all, it is their taxes that pay for the collections.

I started a thread on the subject of "legal deposit" of eBooks in the Writers' Forum a few weeks ago which you may find of interest:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=164977

The answer, in the UK, is that legal deposit for eBooks is currently optional, unlike for paper books, where it's mandatory. In the US it is mandatory.

[carpetmojo]

That's really interesting - presumably UK authors being merely "required" means no sanctions ?
And, if no deposit has been made, the 5 libraries miss out on 5 books to lend out....

That's rather sad - the entitlement, which I suppose dates from our national library service early days, does indicate how important the free "lending" library was seen in our society.
Even if it was only 5 copies, it is some kind of support for the institution.

At least "they" would be hard put to justify cutting that in the cause of deficit correction....

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

That's really interesting - presumably UK authors being merely "required" means no sanctions ?

There are sanctions for not sending a copy of a paper book to the British Library. You can be fined for not doing so. (I'm not sure how much, and I suspect that the law is rarely, if ever, enforced.)

As I said, in the UK, the situation is currently that the law has not "caught up" with eBooks, and that legal deposit is optional for them. You can send the British Library a copy of your eBook if you wish to do so, but it's entirely optional.

[mikaelalind]

Well. When it comes to KB, they ( and a couple of other organisations) are involved in Litteraturbanken.
Mostly fiction and some poetry .

[Kumabjorn]

A more useful link for those who are not familiar with Swedish.

[carpetmojo]

[QUOTE=HarryT......As I said, in the UK, the situation is currently that the law has not "caught up" with eBooks, and that legal deposit is optional for them. You can send the British Library a copy of your eBook if you wish to do so, but it's entirely optional.[/QUOTE]

I'm quite sure it has nothing to do with the possibility that the B.L. fear their shelves will fill up again, and they'll have to build yet more space, because of all those ebooks pouring in....

Actually, that is very unfair of me, the librarians do know what an ebook is - must have been Judges I was thinking about .......

[gweeks]

Originally Posted by HarryT

You actually can - if you're a Congressman or a Senator.

As a normal library user you can borrow from the LOC. I've done it a couple of times. If they are the library of last resort, they will fill an ILL request. It's not the same as walking in and borrowing something.

Greg Weeks

[Terisa de morgan]

A lot of years ago (when I was a teen *sigh*), Spanish National Library had a section for lending books, where you could find the books which had been deposited there. That disappeared, however, and today you can't borrow there unless you're a researcher.

[Giggleton]

I would definitely vote for something that said,

"Everything published (uploaded) to the network must be deposited into the national public library servers as well, and be made available for anyone to access."

Problems of filetypes would arise but those are easily dealt with.

[LuvReadin]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

National libraries like British Library, Library of Congress, Royal Libraries in Scandinavian countries etc have a special obligation to accumulate everything published in a certain country. Their collections are simply enormous. Don't they also have that obligation with regard to electronic publishing? Wouldn't that imply that they can lend e-books to the general public? After all, it is their taxes that pay for the collections.

The BL is taking this question seriously, and it now has over 65K books online: http://www.pocket-lint.com/news/3133...rs-free-ebooks

[Kumabjorn]

The obvious questions then is; What stops them from lending?