In December 2013, the Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) commissioned Brussels-based Civic Agenda to produce a worldwide e-lending landscape report, identifying public library-led initiatives to secure ebooks for borrowers. The report is now available.

This report is the latest step in a project, delivered in collaboration with the National and State Libraries of Australasia (NSLA) and the Council of Australian University Librarians (CAUL), that has involved think tanks held around Australia; formal discussions with library leaders, including the ALIA ebooks and elending reference group, and the publication of a series of papers on the ALIA website .

These activities have helped move the conversation with other book industry stakeholders forward, but Australian public libraries continue to experience great difficulty in obtaining ebooks for elending and finding a platform that will meet the desired criteria:

• A secure, trusted repository that contains ebooks from the big publishers, as well as from authors direct, and from local publishers
• Content procured at a fair price
• Providing access to local history content
• Library branded
• Providing content that can be accessed from all sorts of devices
• With a clever discovery layer
• The options of loan or buy

This landscape report on elending platform developments internationally is intended to help identify practical solutions for Australian public libraries.

For more information about the ALIA ebooks and elending project, please visit our website or email advocacy@alia.org.au.