ELECTRONIC
Books in Libraries: Rights of libraries and Publishers
February 2001
Guest
Editor: Barbara Folensbee-Moore,
Librarian, Morgan, Lewis & Brockius LLP & Chair Copyright Committee
In February
1999, the main branch of Richmond, British Columbia’s public library, began to
loan four SoftBook readers. Pre-loaded
with a mix of 13 fiction and non-fiction titles, there was a 50 person waiting
list to try them out within three months.
Not exactly what the librarians had expected!
As other
public libraries in Canada and the United States begin to venture into the
e-book lending arena, the issues surrounding access, privacy, copyright and
fair use will become more and more important.
Digital rights management is a new phrase that is being used during
discussions about licensing and access to the electronic world of
publishing. Both libraries and
publishers have serious concerns about these issues. It is important to discuss how electronic book providers are
allowing access to materials and libraries are trying to balance the interests
of the users and the publishers. This
is an area of interest that will grow as more and more libraries begin to
invest in the electronic book and begin to realize what effect it has on their collection
development policies, budget considerations, service orientation and patron
access concerns.
Use of the
electronic resources for libraries is nothing new. Patrons have had access to a variety of publications on CD-Rom as
well as both commercial and free databases for years. Libraries purchased individual copies to run on stand alone
machines in the library then expanded to provide access through library networks. Academic libraries have been particularly active in recent years
in expanding their electronics resources to patrons via the Internet. Students rarely have to leave their dorm
room to get access to any number of reference sources, full text journal
articles, searchable databases and even full text monographs or treatises.
While
reference books have been the preferred type of publications for online access,
there is a growing realization that full text works, in which a user may be
interested in only a small portion of the work are also becoming popular. If someone needs a copy of what they are
reading or wants to include a paragraph or two in the paper they are writing,
they simply print, download or cut and paste
Missing from
most electronic book collections have been the literary or humanities
publications. Scientific or fact
oriented publications have lent themselves more readily as the next step from
searching a citation index or bibliography to searching a treatise. Further, information that changes rapidly
can be kept more current in an electronic version. Students can buy books for class on a CD and then update them
through their web access.
As more titles
have become available, libraries have also begun to change the source of the
access they provide. No longer housing
all the materials on their own internal system, libraries are beginning to
provide access for their patrons to materials located at the publishers
websites or through a third party provider or clearinghouse. It is this publisher and third party access
that causes some concerns for libraries.
When
discussing electronic books and access to these publications, the phrase that
is beginning to become important is “copyright management.” In June 2000, the Copyright Clearance Center
announced that it had developed an “end to end licensing and reprint solution that
enables publishers and other content providers to offer their copyrighted
material online, delivering instant permissions and the content itself directly
to customers.”[1]
Copyright protection through digital rights management includes products and
services that allow information to be offered to customers in a secure fashion
allowing the use of computers to facilitate the easy use, processing and
redistribution of information.
Publishers are interested in protecting their copyright interests in the publications they are offering electronically. Of particular interest are expanding licenses to cover not only onsite users but those accessing the work via the web. E-book checkout can be done via a reader borrowed from a local library or by connecting to a provider, using one’s library code and downloading materials to which the library subscribes. When this material is downloaded, the provider can grant rights that have a specified duration, contain copyright controls and report back to the publisher information about the usage.
Often third party
sites work out package deals for access to their products. One of the earliest e-book providers,
netLibrary, is a good example of how this model works. E-books are treated like paper books. A library “purchases” the book for the same
price as a paper copy with use restricted to one user at a time. Along with the purchase price, there is also
an access fee charged – either a fixed percentage based on the cost of the
books purchased or a sliding scale over a period of years. The access fees reward netLibrary for
maintaining the books so the library does not have to keep them on the library
network. Patrons learn of the books
availability through a search of the library’s catalog and can browse it for a
short time before checking it out. The
checkout period is set by the library.
There is a restriction on copying more than a few pages at a time and
digital watermarks are embedded in the material to track it if it is pirated
and posted on the Internet.
A drawback to
this particular model is that if the library discontinues its access, it loses
all rights to the books it purchased.
To get around this problem, some libraries will buy one paper copy of a
publication with electronic access to multiple copies for a specific period of
time. This allows them still to have
the resource in their collection even if the library discontinues electronic
access.
Companies such
as netLibrary and Questia, as well as e-book publishers have as their main
concern profit from the creation of electronic resources that can be made
available directly to individuals or through libraries. Particularly when offering resources to
individuals, copyright management becomes a concern. However, the software currently being developed does more than
just protect copyright. The software not only prevents unauthorized copying but
also is capable of counting a wide
range of operations. Vendors can track
what is read, what is printed, how often users access material and generate
profiles based on the information collected.
Individuals who contact e-publishers directly are certainly more at risk
than those using materials through library access. But even the library access can provide publishers with vast
amounts of information about library patrons, information that never existed from
use of the print version of their product.
The Copyright
Clearance Center program developed for electronic monitoring for copyright
protection appears to provide much more specific usage information than the
current system for monitoring copies made on photocopy machines. How this information is used will be of
interest to libraries and institutions that sign on to the program This collision between user’s rights to “read
anonymously” as opposed to a publisher’s interest in learning as much as they can
about users of the books they publish should cause libraries to look closely at
the agreements they sign with e-book vendors.
Any restrictions on the use of the copyrighted materials or any
indication that the information collected on users may go beyond the vendor
should be scrutinized and negotiated where possible. Unlike individual buyers
of e-books, libraries as mass purchasers do have some clout in deciding what
they will accept in the access contracts.
While privacy
and copyright concerns are primary for libraries developing e-book collections,
other issues include quality of access and access denial. If patrons are going to use the materials
through the web, concerns over incompatible hardware may arise. When all resources were accessed through the
libraries computers, quality was assured.
Now some patrons may not be able to have computer access at home so they
will lose out on the new resources their library dollars are buying. For libraries that buy the e-book readers,
cost is a main factor as well as concerns for how the readers stand up to
patron use. There is a difference in
letting someone take home a $30 book which gets dropped into a puddle versus a
$200+ e-book reader.
Academic
librarians, who have been providing expanded electronic resources for a number
of years now, also express concerns about the narrow view of the library
resources that online patrons may receive.
Not all the good resources on a topic are electronically available. By encouraging expanded use of the
electronic collection, there are fears that whole groups of users will never be
exposed to the vast amount of non-electronic materials. The loss of interaction with library staff
who can recommend materials is also a problem.
Online users also lose the serendipity that is characteristic of
browsing a book or a library shelf versus doing a search online and finding
only what was requested. Libraries and
librarians need to increase their efforts to keep in touch with both the print
and electronic users to make sure all the resources available are known.
As more
publications are made available electronically and e-book reader technology
improves, it will be interesting to watch the relationships between publishers
or e-book providers and libraries. If
more individuals begin to buy their own readers and access the books
themselves, how will this effect library collection development? Will individuals realize the privacy they
are sacrificing when they buy or read and copy electronically and will they
care? The next few years will
definitely be interesting as this new resource grows and develops. Hopefully libraries will be able to enjoy
the advantages and avoid as many of the disadvantages as possible.
Bibliography