Cleveland Public Library to Debut
New E-Book Loan Program
Northern Ohio library patrons will soon be able to access and download digital books and periodicals through a new e-book system headquartered at Cleveland Public Library. Officials announced January 6 that the 31-member Clevenet consortium of libraries has entered into a $50,000 setup-fee agreement with the Cleveland-based digital media company OverDrive to open a circulating e-book and digital media collection.
The Digital Library Reserve system may be the first of its kind because it will allow anyone with a library card to download text from e-books on library Web sites to almost any personal computer or personal digital assistant.
“This new digital book collection is another example of the library’s commitment to access anytime and anywhere,” CPL Director Andrew Venable told American Libraries. “It is designed to utilize technology as being helpful for library customers to access information in different formats.”
OverDrive has digital distribution deals with such publishers as HarperCollins, Scholastic, and John Wiley and Sons, which gives libbrary customers the option of buying e-books from those publishers or offering content from their own collections. The system also offers publishers digital-rights management, allowing them to disable e-book printing, cutting, pasting, and file sharing.
About 1,000 books, including some bestsellers like Michael Crichton’s Prey, will be available when the system begins operation in March.
Posted January 13, 2003.
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