eBooks on DemandA European Network

Günter Mühlberger (University Innsbruck Library)

Starting point: the reader

Researchers, students, historians, genealogists searching for old books from 1500 to 1930

Search engines– Google, GBS,..

Reference databases for digital books– Oaister,…

Antiquarian bookstores– ZVAB

Library catalogues– WorldCat, KVK, Dreiländerkatalog, etc.

How to access an old book

Open Access– Ideal case: Book is part of a free library and can be found via Google or

another database– Or book is part of one of the commercial providers and your library has

concluded a contract Second hand bookshop

– Book can be found in one of the large databases and can be bought for a reasonable price

Library– Book is available and the library is nearby

But: What to do with the big rest?– Interlibrary Loan?– Travelling to the library?– Ordering a microfilm or a Xerox copy?– Wait until one of the mass-digitisation projects has done the work?

Usability of books

Ideal case 1: Book in the Internet– Browsing, printing, searching in the full-text, downloading as PDF – GBS and many other digital libraries (but many not)

Ideal case 2: Possessing the book itself– Reading and copying, partly also scanning always possible– Antiquarian bookshops are booming, you can order millions of old books

from there with some mouse clicks– Prices are cheap for the 20th century

Second or third choice: Book in a library– Borrowing is seldom possible for old books– Access only in the reading room– Xerox copies are either not possible or expensive and of bad quality

Conclusion: Two classes of books– Digital books meet the needs of users best, possessing books meet the

needs rather good, books in libraries are unattractive for reading and working

– People are in many cases using the library not because they like it but because they do not have another option! But if there is another option they will take it.

Here comes EOD!

Objective: All books of a library (with free access rights) shall be available as ebook:– On request of an individual user– For paying a reasonable price– According to standardised conditions

throughout Europe To order an old Book via EOD must be as

simple and quick as ordering a new book via Amazon or one of the big booksellers

EOD Service

Available Books

EOD Button

…Order with one click…

Order form

Customer tracking page

Online Payment

PDF eBook

Local digital library

Updated library catalogue

User reactions

Extremely positive We are doing customer interviews and

have asked more than 30 people– No complaints– They are happy that the service exists,

especially users from abroad– There are some users who already ordered

more than 10 books– Many pay it with their private money

Libraries point of view

Not only for the user, it must be as simple as possible for the library as well!

Central order management system (ODM)– Run in Innsbruck– Once the user clicks on the EOD button the request is technically

handled with the central database– Order form, price, order options are customised per library, or even per

catalogue– A library has its own account and is able to track and to manage all

orders Digital object generator (DOG)

– A central OCRing and PDF creation service– Images are sent to Innsbruck via FTP and processed there

Tasks of a library– Organise the workflow within the library– Send copies of the image to Innsbruck via FTP or upload the basic PDF– Communicate with the user via the ODM

Participating librariesUniversity Libraries Vienna, Graz, Innsbruck Yes

Bavarian State library, University libraries from Berlin, Greifswald, Regensburg

Yes

University library Bratislava - Slovakia Yes

Estonian National Library Yes

Royal Library Denmark Yes

National Library Slovenia Yes

National Library Portugal 2008

National Library Hungary Yes

Moravian Library in Brno Yes

Technical library Prag, University library in Olmütz 2008

ETH Zürich Talks

University library in Torun - Poland Negotiations

Pricing

Every library decides on its own.– The problem: Every library MUST decide– Complicated process

Approaches– Overall costs of digitisation

We must not be „cheaper“ than what we communicate to funding bodies, etc.

Many, many factors from delivering the book to personell costs, depreciation of the scanner, etc.

– Personell costs Many libraries say: The actual costs for the scanning person

are the basis for calculation: A person does e.g. 100 pages per hour and costs 20 EUR or more per hour, etc.

Pricing

Both models are justifiable but should be overruled by another consideration:

If a library decides that EVERY BOOK will be digitised SOMETIMES than the user just should pay that it is digitised NOW!

Pricing

How much whould you pay for a 400 pages book from 1820? How often do you need such a book? – Would you pay 205 EUR for a b/w PDF?– 105 EUR?– 70 EUR?– Or would you expect that you get it for 5-10

EUR, but a maximum of 20 to 30 EUR?

EOD Service Network eTEN project

– Financing until June 2008 After the project

– Objective: Establishment of a self-sustainable network– Project consortium as founder and owner– Operative management at the University Innsbruck Library

Extension of the network– Every library is welcome!– At least 30-40 partners

Integration into EU initiatives– E.g. i2010, EDL, TEL, MICHAEL+, etc.

Integration into existing library services– ILL– WorldCat, etc.

Improvement of the service– E.g. central catalogue– Database of already digitised books

Expectations

University Library Innsbruck– Ca. 250 Orders per year– A third from each: Austria, Germany, rest of the world– Pricing model: 10 EUR per order, 0,15 to 0,18 EUR per page– Income is sufficient to cover the personal costs for scanning

Bavarian Stateslibrary– Ca. 900 orders per year but higher prices since summer 2007

Until now:– No advertising, no branding– No direct linking in the online-catalogues– No online-payment, etc.

Requirements– Good catalogues– Availability of records in other catalogues and Google

Extrapolations– Big libraries: between 500 and 1000 orders per year– Medium libraries: between 200 and 500 orders– EOD will produce some thousands of digital books per year

Future plans (1)

Books in the public domain– Only ca. 25% of all printed books are public domain

Users are interested in the 20th century– Orphan works– Out-of-print works– Copyright protected works

EU High Level Expert Group– Recommendations– Involvement of Reproduction Rights Organisations (collecting societies)

eContent proposal: ARROWs– 15 partners, among them International Federation of Reproduction

Rights Organisation, European Publisher Association, etc.– Clearing mechanisms for orphan and out-of-print works– Testcase: EOD

Future plans (2) PDF and OCR are just the beginning!

– Mass digitisation delivers only images and „raw“ full-text– EOD might take over the improvement of already existing

resources Users are interested in many delivery forms

– Real reprints (e.g. BookSurge)– Corrected full-text for reading books on mobile devices– Full-text with tags for working with it (e.g. TEI)– Special formats such as DAISY for blind and visually impaired

people Consequences: There is a wide field for on-demand

services!

Questions?

Participation? Resources? Ownership? Long-term preservation? Mass-digitisation?

Thank you for your attention!