From the e-lending session at IFLA WLIC 2018

1. Mikkel Christoffersen, special consultant, Copenhagen Libraries
City of Copenhagen
IFLA WLIC, August 29th 2018
The European response
/

2. The situation in Europe
Brief info
2
eReolen = ”eBookcase”
The Danish public
libraries’ platform for
e-books and digital
audiobooks

3. The situation in Europe
NAPLE status May 2018
Input from:
8 countries
1 region: Flanders (Belgium)
1 city: Tallinn (Estonia)
• Ireland
• Spain
• Slovenia
• Germany
• Netherlands
• Denmark
• Czech Republic
• Finland
3

4. The situation in Europe
Executive summary
Every European country does
things differently
There really is no common
thread across Europe
Interesting considering the
sector and its history
4

5. The situation in Europe
A fairytale woven into this narrative …
5

6. The situation in Europe
Institution in charge
• Some are organised from the
national level (e.g. Spain)
• Some are organised from a
regional or city level (e.g.
Flanders and Tallinn*)
• Some use special agreements
with 3rd parties (e.g. Germany)
In Denmark, public libraries
reside at the municipal level (5,5
mn people, 98 municipalities).
eReolen is an association
formed by these 98
municipalities plus Greenland,
Faroe Islands and Schlesvig
6

7. The situation in Europe
Platform
• Spaghetti version (e.g. Czech)
• 3rd party (e.g. Germany)
• Library-run (e.g. Finland)
In Denmark, eReolen designs its
own frontends and runs its own
editorial enterprise
User data is taken from national
service, while the files
themselves come from the
publishers’ own 3rd party service
7

8. The situation in Europe
Typical user
Netherlands
• Female +45 years old
• Educated
• Reads a lot
Slovenia
• Female +50 years old
Tallinn
• 25-39 years old
Denmark (Copenhagen)
• Woman in her 30’s*
• Educated
8

9. The situation in Europe
Models & costs
One common theme here
Everyone uses sets of models, but
diversity is also the only constant
”One copy one user” rules with its
more restrictive relative ”metered
access”
And then there’s the pile of
assorted models:
• One copy multiple users
• Pay per loan or pay for
an entire catalogue
9

10. The situation in Europe
Models & costs
Germany has four different
models and tend to pay 2,5 – 4,5
times net price for 1C1U and
varying exhaustions of licenses
Spain pays net price with 15%
discount and have great terms &
conditions
Slovenia buys licenses at net
price with 52 loans(!)
In Denmark the comparable
number of loans is 4 …
Tallinn shows a depressing
development:
10

11. The situation in Europe
A sad story: Tallinn
11

12. The situation in Europe
Size of collection
No standard way of determining
size of collection
Ireland counts titles and
concurrent copies, while
Denmark counts unique titles
loaned
Some have a core collection and
purchase additional titles (e.g.
Slovenia)
Apart form this there are big
differences between collection
sizes
12

13. The situation in Europe
Size of collection (population)
Netherlands (17 mn):
12.000 e-books
1.200 audiobooks
4.000.000 loans (2017)
Germany (83 mn):
500.000 e-books
12.500 audiobooks
23.500.000* (2017)
Finland (5,5 mn):
6.400 e-books
500 audiobooks*
561.700 loans (2017)
Spain (47 mn):
13.200 e-books
200 audiobooks
511.000 loans (2017)
13

14. The situation in Europe
Audiobooks
The countries range from strong
audiobook collections (e.g.
Germany) to modest ones to
none
The ones without audiobooks
face requests to offer them (e.g.
Flanders)
14

15. The situation in Europe
European Court of Justice ruling
Late 2016 ECJ issued a ruling on
libraries’ right to lend e-books*
Basically the ruling states that a book
is a book and amenable to lending
But not a word on the right to acquire
e-books, price etc.
• If the e-book was
required lawfully
• If the model is ”one copy
one user”
• If there is renumeration
for the author
15
* http://curia.europa.eu/juris/documents.jsf?num=C-174/15

16. The situation in Europe
European Court of Justice ruling
No practical consequences, but
some indirect ones
Czech Republic: ”No substantive
development following from the
ruling. It gives us no template for
e-lending.”
Germany: Discussions between
federal ministry for education
and libraries plus meetings with
all stakeholders
Denmark: Pressure from the
ministry for culture on libraries
and publishers complete with
veiled threats of an intervention
16

17. The situation in Europe
Three models in Denmark
1C1U / metered access (20%)
1CMU / pay per loan (40%)
1CMU / pay for unrestricted access (40%)
17

18. The situation in Europe
2018: Models and use on eReolen
18

19. The situation in Europe
The effect of 1C1U

20. The situation in Europe
eReolen in the publishing ecosystem
eReolen is used by 600+
publishers; many of these are
one-man shops
Many have taken back their
digital rights
What do authors really want?
90% of the content fares badly
on commercial platforms
eReolen is de facto the only
platform to reach an audience
for the 90%
… which is now dawning on
publishers and authors
20

21. The situation in Europe
… and this is where it gets
really interesting!
This is where we demonstrate
our crucial role in literary
discovery and dissemination
… where we connect culture
creators and consumers
… disrupt publishing logic
21

22. The situation in Europe
Questions and comments:
M. +45 2049 1885
E. c45c@kk.dk
Thanks to Margaret and Stephen for their
hard work and to the audience:
Thank you for your time! 
22