Digital Publishing News: Token Model For EBook Checkouts At The Library

Although Libraries still struggle to offer digital content for lending to its members. Conversely Publishers are considering all the implications of allowing library members to borrow their best-selling and even back list titles on their digital devices. Meanwhile Library Idea is one of the companies that want to modify the concept behind lending all together with Freading an e-book lending platform. Similarly Amazon Prime in which members pay an annual membership price. In contrast Freading allows libraries to distribute virtual tokens which are exchanged for “borrowable titles”. For instance, tokens are brought with actual money by the libraries, as opposed to a flat subscription price for using the catalog like Amazon’s Prime model.

Book discovery is an issue Freading contends with to integrate onto its system. A number of Library platforms which use “Subscrption-based limitations” which keep cost cheap for Library of all sizes. Solely Freading’ catalog is accessible to its member libraries. The aforementioned leads to concerns with Book Discovery; however, Freading has included “search headings” in this new edition which make it simpler to filter searches for books.

(Source) Mercy Pilkington