OCLC and Ingram to offer new option for access to e-books

April 11, 2011 - PRLog -- OCLC and Ingram Content Group Inc. will soon offer a new service option that will provide library users short-term access to e-books not in their collection through WorldCat Resource Sharing and ILLiad.

The new service option, to launch in the coming months, expands access to library content available through WorldCat Resource Sharing to include access to e-books from Ingram’s MyiLibrary e-book collection for a period of up to nine days. E-book loans are fee-based, set at 15 percent of the MyiLibrary price for access to the e-book. The fee is managed through the WorldCat Resource Sharing interlibrary loan Fee Management feature, a service that supports payment of resource-sharing services through the library’s OCLC invoice.

“As technology continues to change the way people access information, forward-thinking libraries are turning to innovative collection development and content delivery solutions to fulfill the needs of their patrons,” said Rich Rosy, Vice President and General Manager, Ingram Library Services. “Ingram is pleased to be collaborating with OCLC—together we are creating market relevant solutions to deliver more content to more patrons efficiently and cost-effectively.”

Using WorldCat discovery services, library users can find what they need and staff can request access to available e-books in Ingram’s MyiLibrary. OCLC is working with Ingram (holding symbol IDILL) to identify and attach holdings to the MyiLibrary e-books available to users.

To support this e-book access program, OCLC is adding a new “Alert” category in the request manager in WorldCat Resource Sharing and ILLiad to inform borrowing library staff that the record requires immediate action. The library user will have nine days from the date the e-book is shipped to use the link before it expires.

“This new option for short-term access to e-books offered through Ingram’s MyiLibrary is a significant step forward in the evolution of e-books in libraries,” said Chip Nilges, OCLC Vice President, Business Development. “As e-books become more popular with readers, OCLC will continue to explore new ways to expand access to this library content with a variety of content providers.”

This short-term access option delivers e-books to users quickly, so they can begin to use requested titles right away. Once a request is updated to “shipped” status, it is immediately available for use with no delays for shipping or the time required to pick up a requested print title. In addition, many users access e-books to obtain specific parts of information for research. For example, often a chapter or section of an e-book is all they need to use. The MyiLibrary interface lets users search full text of titles to quickly identify the sections they need.

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About OCLC
Founded in 1967, OCLC is a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing library costs. More than 72,000 libraries in 170 countries have used OCLC services to locate, acquire, catalog, lend, preserve and manage library materials. Researchers, students, faculty, scholars, professional librarians and other information seekers use OCLC services to obtain bibliographic, abstract and full-text information when and where they need it. OCLC and its member libraries cooperatively produce and maintain WorldCat, the world’s largest online database for discovery of library resources. Search WorldCat on the Web at www.worldcat.org. For more information, visit www.oclc.org.