On Ebooks & Libraries:
A Statement by the Oberlin Group of Liberal Arts College Libraries
Colleges and universities, democracies, and civil societies thrive only when information moves readily between institutions and peoples. No institution is self-sufficient, and none can fulfill its members’ needs in isolation.
The same is true for academic libraries. None can provide its institution’s faculty and students with every piece of information they may someday need. Hence libraries specialize, acquiring content central to the teaching and research at their own institutions, while relying on one another to fill gaps that occur as a matter of course.
Such dependencies are inevitable, codified over the decades in agreements struck by local, regional, national, and international consortia. This ecosystem of sharing—traditionally known as interlibrary loan—depends on trust and good faith, not only among libraries, but also between libraries and publishers. Both parties acknowledge (a) the need to borrow and (b) limits on appropriate borrowing—limits affirmed by interlibrary loan codes. Quite simply, (a) publishers acknowledge libraries’ need to loan and borrow material they purchase and rent, while (b) libraries acknowledge their obligation to purchase items they request multiple times.
This system constitutes an equalizing and democratizing force. It reduces disparities between wealthy institutions and impoverished institutions. It provides citizens outside the academy with scholarly content beyond the scope of public library collections, and it provides faculty and students with content beyond the scope of traditional academic collections.
This system now faces an existential threat. The threat is simple: contractual agreements for electronic books regularly forbid sharing those publications with persons outside the licensing institutions.
When libraries purchase print books, they own those books and—under the first-sale doctrine—may lend them to the persons and institutions they choose. But new licensing agreements for electronic books threaten this infrastructure and the values it enshrines. While (a) librarians still acknowledge their obligation to compensate publishers for use that exceeds fair use, (b) publishers that demand restrictive licensing agreements have effectively abandoned their decades-long acknowledgement of libraries’ need to share material.
The Oberlin Group, a consortium of liberal arts college libraries in the U.S., submits that we libraries accept such licensing restrictions at our peril. When we purchase or rent material we cannot share with citizens beyond our campus borders, we turn our backs on a great strength of the academy—the ability to build complementary collections and share them in good faith with researchers and the community of readers.
Long-standing relationships between publishers and libraries must continue, to our mutual benefit. We acknowledge that many good publishers are struggling. Our goal is not to harm or constrain the activities of good presses adhering to ethical practices. In fact we remain particularly sympathetic to presses committed to the hard work of publishing academic books.
Our intent, rather, is to suggest that libraries and presses work together to make material available to all who need it—to use digital technology cooperatively to promote rather than constrain the dissemination of scholarship. We affirm libraries’ obligation to buy books central to their institution’s curriculum and research. And we oppose piracy and illegal file sharing in all forms.We expect in return that publishers work with us to realize our shared mission: making good scholarly literature available to everybody who needs it.
To summarize, we do not live in isolation. We all find ourselves impoverished—always indirectly and sometimes directly—when information fails to reach those in need. Our commitment to sharing is fundamental, as is our commitment to promoting and demanding models that make such sharing possible.
We thus assert the following: Contracts without provisions for transmitting material beyond our home institutions undermine our commitments to each other and artificially circumscribe the larger scholarly ecosystem. They constrain the research of students and faculty at our home institutions, who will soon find themselves unable to obtain essential material from institutions failing to secure such provisions. Looking out for ourselves means looking out for others.
In light of these assertions, we advocate the following principles:
Contracts should allow libraries to provide a temporary copy of the work to another library in response to a user request, in a manner that is neither cumbersome nor awkward for patrons or library staff.
Contracts should allow libraries to transfer electronic content efficiently and electronically, i.e., with minimal use of paper.
Software should allow libraries to control the parameters of circulation (loan periods, renewals, recalls, etc.) and to limit access to a single user when contracts do not authorize use by multiple, simultaneous users.
Contracts should impose no limits on the number of times a patron may access an e-book; neither should they impose additional costs for multiple uses.
Contracts should provide options for archival and perpetual access.
Software should allow patrons to download content and to use said content on multiple, standard-use platforms and devices.
Contracts should forbid publishers from using or sharing patron data if such use allows publishers to identify an individual without that individual’s permission.
Publishers should offer libraries the ability to purchase individual titles apart from bundled packages.
Publishers should offer libraries the ability to purchase licenses for unlimited simultaneous users—for short or long periods—at fair prices.
Reading software should allow readers to copy text and media within publications, paste it, and print it.
Contracts should allow libraries to insert metadata that accompanies publications into library systems and discovery layers.
Content should comply with ADA accessibility requirements and work with text-to-speech engines.
March 2014
Elizabeth Bagley
Director of Library Services
Agnes Scott College
Claudia Diaz and Michael Van Houten
Library Co-Directors
Albion College
Carla Tracy
Library Director
Augustana College
Bryn Geffert
Librarian of the College
Amherst College
Jeff Katz
Dean, Information Services
Bard College
Lisa Norberg
Dean of Library & Academic Information Services
Barnard College
Megan Fitch
Chief Information Officer
Beloit College
Anne Chase
Director of Library Services
Berea College
Marjorie Hassen
College Librarian
Bowdoin College
Param Bedi
Vice President, Library & Information Technology
Bucknell University
Brad Schaffner
College Librarian
Carleton College
Kevin Mulroy
Dean
Claremont Colleges Library
Gwen Arthur
University Librarian
Clark University
Kathleen Carney
Director of Library Services
College of the Holy Cross
Kathleen Parker
Director of Libraries, Media and Archives
College of Saint Benedict | Saint John’s University
Mark Christel
Director of Libraries
College of Wooster
W. Lee Hisle
Vice-President for Information Services
and Librarian of the College
Connecticut College
BethAnn Zambella
Director of Libraries
Denison University
Rick Provine
Director of Libraries
Depauw University
Eleanor Mitchell
Director of Library Services
Dickinson College
Andrew D. Scrimgeour
Dean of Libraries
Drew University
Neal Baker
Library Director
Earlham College
Jamie Gill
Library Director
Eckerd College
Pamela Snelson
College Librarian
Franklin & Marshall College
Janis Bandelin
Director of Libraries
Furman University
Robin Wagner
Dean of the Library
Gettysburg College
Daniel Mollner
Library Chair
Gustavus Adolphus College
David Smallen
VP for Libraries and IT
Hamilton College
Terry Snyder
Librarian of the College
Haverford College
Kelly Jacobsma
Director of Libraries
Hope College
Stacy Nowicki
Library Director
Kalamazoo College
Amy Badertscher
Director of Library Services
Kenyon College
Jeffrey A. Douglas
Director of the Library
Knox College
Neil McElroy
Dean of Libraries
Lafayette College
Jim Cubit
Director of Library and Information Technology
Lake Forest College
Pete Gilbert
University Librarian
Lawrence University
Teresa A. Fishel
Library Director
Macalester College
Maire Duchon
Library Director
Manhattan College
Loretta Parham
CEO & Library Director
Morehouse & Spelman Colleges
Atlanta University Center Woodruff Library
Alex Wirth-Cauchon
Interim CIO and Executive Director of LITS
Mount Holyoke College
Ray English
Director of Libraries
Oberlin College
Robert Kieft
College Librarian
Occidental College
Catherine Cardwell
Director of Libraries
Ohio Wesleyan University
Virginia E. Young
Library Director
Randolph-Macon College
Darlene Brooks
Library Director
Rhodes College
Jonathan Miller
Library Director
Rollins College
Michael Alzo
Director of Libraries
St. Lawrence University
Roberta Lembke
Director of IT and Libraries
St. Olaf College
Bobbie Smolow
Acting Library Director
Sarah Lawrence College
Ruth Copans
College Librarian
Skidmore College
Christopher B. Loring
Director of Libraries
Smith College
Peggy Seiden
College Librarian
Swarthmore College
Diane Graves
University Librarian
Trinity University (TX)
Frances Maloy
College Librarian
Union College
Kevin Reynolds
Associate University Librarian
University of the South
Sabrina Pape
Director of the Libraries
Vassar College
John Lamborn
Library Director
Wabash College
John Tombarge
University Librarian
Washington and Lee University
Ian Graham
Director of Library Collections
Wellesley College
Deb Dancik
AVP of Academic Affairs and University Librarian
Willamette University
Pat Tully
University Librarian
Wesleyan University
Susan Wawrzaszek
Associate Vice President
Wheaton College (MA)
Dalia Corkrum
Library Director
Whitman College
Laurel Crump
Library Director
Whittier College
David M. Pilachowski
College Librarian
Williams College
1 Adapted from E-Book Rights Advocacy (St. Paul, MN: Dewitt Wallace Library, Macalester College, 2013), http://www.macalester.edu/library/changingebooksforlibraries/advocacy, accessed 21 January 2013, which draws in part from the IFLA Principles for Library E-Lending (The Hague: IFLA, 2013), http://www.ifla.org/node/7418, accessed 21 January 2014