blog/data/2011-10-07-ebokbibliotek.txt

   1 Title: Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?
   2 Tags: english, opphavsrett
   3 Date: 2011-10-07 19:20
   4
   5 <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
   6 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
   7 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
   8 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
   9 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
  10 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
  11 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
  12 models.</p>
  13
  14 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
  15 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
  16 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
  17 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
  18
  19 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
  20 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
  21 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
  22 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about
  23 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
  24 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
  25 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
  26 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
  27 distributed.</p>
  28
  29 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
  30
  31 <ul>
  32
  33 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
  34   other relevant equipment.</li>
  35
  36 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
  37
  38 </ul>
  39
  40 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
  41 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
  42 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
  43 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
  44 books available.</p>
  45
  46 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
  47 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
  48 libraries. :)</p>