Today, COMMUNIA is releasing Policy Paper #19 on e-lending (also available as a PDF file), in which we address the shortcomings of the current European legal framework, and present our recommendations for an EU-wide right to e-lend.
Libraries play a long-standing part in connecting European citizens to, and enabling their use of, information resources.The services provided by libraries are vital to the enjoyment of fundamental rights. In a world where information is increasingly accessed digitally, library users expect and need access to e-books. However, libraries face significant barriers to transition their lending practices from analogue to digital.
In recent years, it has become increasingly common for publishers and aggregators to limit access to e-books through libraries, by imposing highly restrictive licensing conditions, demanding excessive prices, or simply denying e-book licences to libraries altogether.
In our new policy paper we develop a set of recommendations that would permit libraries to fulfil their mission in the digital age, including the introduction of an EU-wide exception for e-lending and a provision to make unreasonable licensing terms unenforceable. These measures should be introduced as part of a broader legislative intervention, a Digital Knowledge Act, which addresses the needs of European knowledge institutions in the digital age comprehensively.
