An Essay by Michael Atwood and John Wilkin

Last year, John Wilkin shared his essay Lyrasis in a Landscape of Radical Interdependence where he discussed the interdependence of libraries, archives and museums, and how Lyrasis is uniquely positioned to provide the connective tissue between them. He also laid out three key areas of internal focus for the future of Lyrasis: Content and Scholarly Communications, Hosting and Open Source Software Support, and — its newest division — Ebooks and Community Engagement. In a follow-up essay, John expanded on the complexity of providing meaningful offerings to libraries given that the marketplace “did not need one more competing ebook vendor, and that displacing existing vendors was at best a foolish goal.” With this in mind, the ebook challenges faced by libraries highlighted in John’s first essay still exist today:

In 2021, with the ebook and ebook marketplace challenges in full view, Lyrasis started The Palace Project, in partnership with DPLA and a generous grant from the Knight Foundation. Later that same year, Lyrasis acquired BiblioLabs and its community engagement platform and services. The synergy of services, technologies and solutions for the two groups’ library communities came together a little over a year ago with the formal creation of the Ebooks and Community Engagement division — a team focused on providing libraries with solutions and alternatives in this space via a multifaceted approach to ebooks and econtent.

We believe, for libraries to secure control over their ebook future, they must adopt a multifaceted strategy — from negotiating innovative licensing terms with traditional publishers to directly sourcing content from local communities. However, the primary obstacle to this approach has been the absence of a platform capable of supporting these new models. For instance, while publishers may be open to offering library-friendly licensing options, they are often limited by the capabilities of existing library platforms. At the same time, publishers typically lack the resources to develop, maintain and distribute their own platforms, and when every solution begins with “first, build an ebook reader,” potential innovations are stifled before they can be realized. It became evident years ago that a foundational, library-owned ebook platform was essential to address both operational and patron-facing challenges.

The Palace Project

The concept of a library-owned foundational ebook platform has been around for over a decade, but it has taken time to catalyze. In 2012, New York Public Library (NYPL) introduced Library Simplified and SimplyE with the idea that an open-source library-owned platform built on open technologies like Readium and open protocols like OPDS would help to address the problem facing libraries. It did, to a point, but without a clear sustainability model, it was not able to achieve the velocity necessary to become the foundational ebook platform.

Building on the foundation of Library Simplified, The Palace Project (TPP) launched in 2021. One of the key goals of the original project charter was to create a sustainable “library-centric and library-driven” ebook platform for the larger library community. To that end, TPP offers several advantages to libraries, publishers and ebook distributors.

• The Palace Project was designed from the ground up to bring together a library's ebook content from multiple sources, making it easier for patrons to find what they are looking to read.
• Interoperability is a core tenet of the platform, meaning the platform should favor open technology and protocols such as OPDS, EPUB for accessible access, and Licensed Content Protection (LCP) when Digital Rights Management (DRM) is required.
• Because Lyrasis is a member-driven non-profit organization, its goals for the platform’s growth and sustainability are aligned with the communities being served.
• The platform provides a transparent and open roadmap.
• The platform favors collaboration over competition.
• The platform provides flexibility for the library and integrated partners. Neither should be “locked in,” and all should be welcome to participate.
• The platform operates with a shared infrastructure sustainability model. Libraries and partners need to have confidence the platform will be expanded and maintained into the future.

The agency provided by The Palace Project to both the library community and publishers has already brought about innovations in ebook access. In addition to titles from the “Big 5,” Amazon Publishing and Audible, The Palace Marketplace now offers a true ownership model for select titles from Independent Publishers Group. In this model, libraries can move the file to another ebook provider, participate in interlibrary loan programs, and update the format for preservation.

Additionally, The Palace Project has enabled publishers, like Blackstone Audio and Unlimited Listens, and distributors, like BiblioBoard, to offer subscriptions to simultaneous use, no-holds ebook and audiobook collections. These collections allow libraries to pay a single subscription fee and avoid per-use costs. Licensing models such as this, facilitated by The Palace Project, allow libraries to heavily market audiobooks to their patrons and not have their budget punished for being successful.

Finally, The Palace Project has made it easy for libraries to include Open Access materials into their larger collection. A large collection of these materials have been expertly selected by a curation corps consisting of librarians and are provided to all Palace libraries.

Indie Author Project

Increasing access to existing ebooks is not the only way the EBCE division is working with the community to address their ebook challenges. By helping the library community engage and discover their local authors, libraries can also source and curate ebooks directly. The Indie Author Project (IAP) is a program and set of software services that libraries can use to help their local author communities write, edit and publish their ebooks.

While publishing the wellspring of independent ebooks is a great service to the library and its community of local authors, curation is a critical next step of the process. In a recent survey, over 80% of librarians said it’s important to have curated independent author content in their catalogs. Once an ebook is submitted to the IAP program, the best ones are selected by librarians nationwide to become part of the Indie Author Project Select collection. The IAP Select collection is then available for purchase on all major library ebook platforms, and provides a collection of librarian-curated independent ebooks with library-friendly licensing terms, and gives independent authors greater opportunities for discovery. The funds received sustain the program and cover any costs that are typically incurred by the authors.

By supporting the Indie Author Project, the library community has become not only a consumer of ebooks, but in partnership with the local author communities, a producer. Taking control of their own ebook economy is yet another way libraries can impact the ebook market. To date there have been over 20,000 submissions to the IAP program and over 2,700 IAP Select books curated by the library community.

Collaboration Across Communities

The multifaceted approach has become a multi-community approach, with EBCE providing the connective tissue between the Lyrasis library member communities, their patrons, local authors, publishers and distributors. This deeply collaborative approach is intentionally driven from Lyrasis’ mission to provide value to the communities it serves. Specifically in the area of ebooks, Lyrasis is uniquely positioned to listen and respond to the needs of the community and work closely with all those involved.

In conclusion, Lyrasis will continue to embrace the complex challenges surrounding ebooks and community engagement by fostering innovation and collaboration. The Palace Project and the Indie Author Project exemplify how libraries can assert greater control over their ebook futures, whether by leveraging sustainable, library-owned platforms or by amplifying the voices of local authors. By offering libraries flexible solutions for ebook acquisition, licensing, and community engagement, Lyrasis is not only addressing immediate needs but also shaping the long-term ecosystem of digital content. These efforts represent a bold step toward a more inclusive and diverse ebook landscape, where libraries are both curators and creators of knowledge.

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