RFI Released seeking partners for better eContent for Public Libraries

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release

TORONTO (June 5, 2012) eBOUND Canada and the Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) together have issued a Request for Information (RFI) invitation to vendors and solutions providers concerning a joint public library eBook lending initiative.[

“CULC/CBUC has been involved in a constructive collaboration for over 18 months with members of the broad Canadian publishing community, and we feel that the time is right to seek a Canadian-made solution that can offer an innovative win-win-win-win for publishers-authors-library users and Canadian public libraries.” says CULC/CBUC Executive Director Jefferson Gilbert.

The purpose of the RFI is to identify potential partners who would be interested in providing a Canadian-controlled infrastructure for the storage and distribution of digital content as well as for the management of lending agreements and transactions between public libraries, publishers and library patrons.

“We are seeking expressions of interest from vendors who feel their organizations possess existing technology, or who feel their organizations can quickly provide technology, to help build this infrastructure.” said Susan Renouf, Chair of eBOUND Canada.

Information gathered at this point will be used to identify suppliers for follow-up engagement in a future Request For Proposals (RFP) process leading to a pilot project and, later, to full implementation across Canada.

ABOUT EBOUND CANADA

eBOUND Canada was born out of the digital efforts of the Association of Canadian Publishers, and was incorporated as a distinct and separate organization in 2011. Acting as an intermediary between Canadian publishers and vendors in the global eBook supply chain, eBOUND’s mandate is to advance all aspects of digital publishing in Canada, particularly eBook conversion, retail distribution, digital asset management, and research and education.

ABOUT CULC/CBUC

The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC)/Conseil des Bibliotheques Urbaines du Canada (CBUC) was formally incorporated in 2008 with a mandate to strengthen the capacity of Canada’s urban libraries. CULC/CBUC members collectively serve more than 7.5 million active users who annually make more than 384,000,000 annual uses of 522 physical locations plus virtual services. Member library systems spend over $90,000,000 on material, including over $11,000,000 on digital resources.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

TO VIEW THE DETAILED REQUEST FOR INFORMATION:

eBound-CULC/CBUC RFI Public Library eBook Lending Initiative