Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
The current situation of e-books in academic and public libraries in Sweden
University of Borås, Swedish School of Library and Information Science. (Digital resources and services)
University of Borås, Library and Learning Resources. (Digital resources and services)
2013 (English)Conference paper, Published paper (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The arrival of e-books in Swedish libraries has been influenced by the ideas of provisions of equal access to all media and all Swedish citizens as well as by librarians’ wish to provide best service to their users within the library’s area of responsibility. They saw this new resource and service in the light of fulfilling their specific function in a democratic society that is usually expressed in Sweden as mediation (or transfer) of knowledge and culture to all. This is a common foundation, on which new media and information resources (including e-books) are incorporated into Swedish academic and public libraries. Apart from this common basis we see other similarities in work with e-books in both types of libraries, but also a number of differences. Most of them relate to the situation of libraries within their respective context and in relation to their specific role. Academic libraries are quite influential players in the global scholarly communication and supporters of both research and study processes. As such they are embedded in mainly international market of scientific information and scholarly materials. They have significant resources provided by parent universities for acquisition and a wide choice of commercially available material from different producers and vendors. They are organized into a national library consortium that has increased negotiation power. Thus, they have more freedom to experiment with a variety of business and pricing models offered on the international market. They also have high competence in the area of publishing and often play a role of a publisher themselves. Their involvement in research process and in open access initiatives puts them in a position to provide expertise to researchers in publishing and intellectual property areas. Public libraries are part of local cultural and educational landscape. As such they depend on the production of media and content in national languages that helps to cater to the needs and demands of the local population. They also are customers on a relatively small market of publishing, entertainment and education-related materials that help to fulfil their function in the enlightenment of the people. As public libraries offer open and free-of-charge access to their resources to the totality of the population in a particular territory, eventually covering the whole country, they are regarded as a disruptive player in the market economy. This perceived threat from public libraries was reborn in the emerging market of e-books. Despite these differences both academic and public libraries face similar challenges and problems in management of their collections, creating metadata, and providing access to them. So far, no such solutions that could satisfy all involved parties have been found.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2013.
Keywords [en]
e-books, academic libraries, public libraries, Sweden, Library and Information science
National Category
Social Sciences
Research subject
Library and Information Science
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-7167Local ID: 2320/13341OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hb-7167DiVA, id: diva2:887875
Conference
International Conference - Publishing Trends and Contexts 6 - 7 December 2013, Pula, Croatia
Note

Sponsorship:

Vetenskapsrådet

Available from: 2015-12-22 Created: 2015-12-22

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1143 kB)326 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1143 kBChecksum SHA-512
4204ed17faf42c89b95acf569e265a1839e9e3c8f96fa80adb0a01beb298cd7f5a189b3996b7b09181124d0730d0c8d11ced70ff99baa0ec1b3324f728577061
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Authority records

Maceviciute, ElenaBorg, Martin

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Maceviciute, ElenaBorg, Martin
By organisation
Swedish School of Library and Information ScienceLibrary and Learning Resources
Social Sciences

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 326 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 497 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • harvard-cite-them-right
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf