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International Conference on Theory and Practice of Digital Libraries

TPDL 2013: Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries pp 29–34Cite as

E-Books in Swedish Public Libraries: Policy Implications

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Part of the Lecture Notes in Computer Science book series (LNISA,volume 8092)

Abstract

The aims of the paper are: review the situation of e-books delivery in the Swedish public libraries (as it looked at the end of 2012); identify the barriers that public libraries encounter in providing access to e-books; highlight the policy-related problems of e-book provision through public libraries. A survey was carried out in October, 2012 of all public libraries in Sweden. 291 questionnaires were issued. 185 were completed, response rate was 63.3%. The provision of an e-book service has arisen as a result of either demand or an ideological belief that the ethos of democratic values and equality of access requires libraries to offer material in all media. Librarians find the situation of e-books provision through libraries unsatisfactory: the provider of titles removes them from the catalogue without warning or explanation, there are too few titles for children and students, and access to popular titles is delayed.

Keywords

  • e-books
  • public libraries
  • information policy
  • Sweden

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  • DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-40501-3_4
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References

  1. CSB: Privatpersoners Användning av Datorer och Internet (Usage of computers and internet by private persons). Stockholm (2012), http://www.scb.se/statistik/_publikationer/LE0108_2011A02_BR_IT01BR1201.pdf (retrieved May 26, 2013)

  2. Internet World Stats: Top 50 Countries with the Highest Internet Penetration Rate (2011), http://www.internetworldstats.com/top25.htm (retrieved May 28, 2013)

  3. Bohlund K. Faktabanken, http://forlaggare.se/faktabank (retrieved May 26, 2013)

  4. Facht U. Aktuell Statistik om E-böcker, http://www.nordicom.gu.se/common/stat_xls/2189_3090_E-bokstatistik_antologi_2012.pdf (retrieved May 28, 2013)

  5. Kungliga Biblioteket: När Kommer Boomen? En Kartläggning av E-boken i Sverige ur ett Biblioteksperspektiv. (When will the boom happen? A survey of the e-book in Sweden from a library perspective.) Svensk Biblioteksföreningen, Stockholm (2011)

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  6. National Library of Sweden. Bibliotek 2012. Kungliga biblioteket, Stockholm (2013)

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  7. Regeringens proposition 2012/13:147. Ny bibliotekslag, http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/Dokument-Lagar/Forslag/Propositioner-och-skrivelser/Ny-bibliotekslag_H003147/?html=true (retrieved May 29, 2013)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Swedish School of Library and Information Science, University of Borås, Allégatan 1, Borås, Sweden

    Elena Maceviciute & Tom D. Wilson

Authors
  1. Elena Maceviciute
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  2. Tom D. Wilson
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, 7491, Trondheim, Norway

    Trond Aalberg

  2. Department of Archives and Library Science, Ionian University, 49100, Corfu, Greece

    Christos Papatheodorou

  3. Department of Library Information and Archive Sciences, University of Malta, MSD2280, Msida, Malta

    Milena Dobreva

  4. Library and Information Center, University of Patras, 26504, Patras, Greece

    Giannis Tsakonas

  5. National Archives of Malta, RBT1043, Rabat, Malta

    Charles J. Farrugia

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© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cite this paper

Maceviciute, E., Wilson, T.D. (2013). E-Books in Swedish Public Libraries: Policy Implications. In: Aalberg, T., Papatheodorou, C., Dobreva, M., Tsakonas, G., Farrugia, C.J. (eds) Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries. TPDL 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 8092. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40501-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40501-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-40500-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-40501-3

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)