I am forwarding a message from Shirley Bateman at Melbourne Libraries. Anyone interested can get directly in touch with Professor Giblin on [log in to unmask] Would be good to add a UK comparison. Rachel
Shirley writes:
I was wondering if you could help with this request. I met with Dr Rebecca Giblin, an Associate Law Professor at Monash University in Melbourne. She’s doing some very interesting research into eBook lending in public libraries. There are three aspects to her research: availability, access and readership.
She’s looking for a UK library that uses the Overdrive platform for eBooks to help with her research. I’ve included her request below.
Do you know someone in the UK that may be able to help with this? I imagine that a library with a fairly good eBook offer would be preferable.
Rebecca Giblin writes:
'We are involved with a project studying the legal and social impacts of library elending. It currently involves researchers in law, communications and data science and library organisations from around Australia, Canada and the US. One of the matters being studied is availability of ebooks, and the terms of that access. The researchers have developed a software script that can collect and compare availability data from Overdrive across jurisdictions. They have tested it across Australia and Canada and the results are very interesting, with lots of books available on different licence terms across jurisdictions (eg OC,OU compared to metered access) and big differences in the number of books that are available at all. The researchers are intending to publish this work and present it at IFLA.
The researchers are very interested in adding a UK comparison to this. It would involve running the software script (which we have been assured is very simple) and then sending over the resulting spreadsheets, perhaps an hour or so of time. Overdrive knows about the project and is happy for the team to use any data they receive from libraries. Might you be interested in participating (or do you know someone else who could be)?'
Dr Rebecca Giblin / Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, Monash University
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Shirley Bateman | Melbourne Library Service | Libraries and Recreation
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