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SPOTLIGHT
Adobe Acrobat® eBook Reader™

eLib and Swedish

Public Libraries
Swedish libraries enhance services and reduce costs by lending
Adobe PDF–based eBooks from eLib

Public libraries today are looking for innovative offering eBooks to reduce costs and enhance
PROFILE
• Sweden’s largest eBook provider ways to enhance services while simultaneously services, they approached eLib to develop a
• Employees: 5 reducing operating costs. One strategy involves comprehensive eBook service. First the libraries
• Headquarters: Stockholm,
Sweden offering patrons electronic books, or eBooks. and eLib had to overcome the technical hurdles
• www.elib.se eBooks are available at any time and from any- associated with tracking copyrights and com-
BENEFITS SUMMARY where in the world; plus they are less expensive pensating authors and publishers. To solve the
• eBooks published in Adobe PDF to lend than paperbound books. But lending problem, eLib recommended Adobe Content
allow Swedish libraries to extend
access to people with disabilities eBooks presents its own administrative chal- Server software.
and those living overseas or in
remote locations in Sweden. lenges. For example, libraries must place limits
Digital rights management features in Adobe
• Digital rights management on how long eBooks can be checked out, ensure
features in Adobe Content Server Content Server ensure that only the borrower
protect libraries by ensuring that that only borrowers can read them, and guaran-
only the borrower can read an can read the eBook and also allow libraries to
eBook.
tee that publishers receive compensation. With
electronically enforce due dates. Once the date
• Adobe Content Server lets the help of eLib, Sweden’s largest eBook distribu-
libraries electronically enforce a arrives, the book can no longer be opened. As
due date for each eBook. tor, and Adobe Content Server software, public
eBooks are checked out, eLib tracks book down-
• Adobe eBooks are popular among libraries across Sweden are lowering their oper-
readers because Adobe PDF files loads and ensures that the appropriate royalties
retain the exact look and feel of ating costs and extending access to patrons.
the printed versions. are paid.
• Adobe eBooks are half as “Our goal is to be accessible 24 hours a day
expensive to lend as paperbound “Adobe Content Server is vital for our library
books. from anywhere in the world,” says Martin
customers, because it provides controls such as
• Adobe eBooks can be checked Hafstrom, deputy library director for the
out anytime from anywhere in allowing us to put time limits on eBooks and
the world. Stockholm Public Library. “By working with
specifying whether or not they can be printed,”
eLib to lend eBooks in Adobe PDF, we can
explains Fabian Fischer, eLib’s chief technology
better reach people with disabilities or people
officer. “As the popularity of eBooks grows, the
living overseas or in remote locations in
ability to manage copyright issues such as these
Sweden. At the same time, we can retain admin-
becomes increasingly critical.”
istrative control.” Currently, the library offers
patrons access to more than 130 titles as Adobe
Popularity on the rise among patrons
PDF–based eBooks.
Since June 2001, libraries in Stockholm and
Nacka have allowed patrons to check out books
Overcoming copyright issues
as Adobe PDF–based eBooks, and recently 15
eLib converted many of the most popular Swed-
more libraries including Lund and Kalmar also
ish novels to Adobe eBooks that are sold through
added the service. Swedes living in such faraway
a retail Internet bookstore to readers worldwide.
When Swedish libraries became interested in

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 and new book purchasing.
In contrast, it costs only
about half this amount to
manage the process of lend-
ing Adobe eBooks.

About 25 other libraries

across Sweden are now
interested in offering
Adobe eBooks through
eLib, and Fischer believes that in a year’s
Public libraries across Sweden
are lowering operating costs and time libraries will account for 90% to 95%
extending access to patrons by
making books available online as of the distributed books. “For libraries, Adobe
eBooks in Adobe PDF. eLib converted eBooks and Adobe Content Server are the natu-
many of the most popular Swedish places as Yugoslavia and the United States have
novels to Adobe eBooks that are sold ral choice,” Fischer explains. “Readers benefit
through a retail Internet bookstore downloaded the books, as have many Swedish
to readers worldwide. Digital rights because Adobe PDF retains the exact look and
management features in Adobe commuters who want to carry a variety of titles
Content Server help ensure that only feel of the laid out pages, and libraries benefit
the borrower can read the eBook and with them to read on the train ride to and
from the rich set of digital rights management
also allow libraries to electronically from work. Swedish libraries also expect Adobe
enforce due dates. eBooks published features in Adobe Content Server. The combi-
in Adobe PDF also help extend access eBooks to be used by people with disabilities,
to people with disabilities and those nation is ideal for libraries that want to offer
living overseas or in remote locations who might have difficulty traveling to a library
in Sweden. eBook services.”
to borrow a book.

Patrons appreciate the convenience and familiarity TOOLBOX

that Adobe eBooks offer. eBooks can be checked Adobe Acrobat
out 24 hours a day and accessed online in seconds Adobe Acrobat eBook Reader
“Readers benefit because Adobe Content Server
from anywhere in the world—without physical
Adobe PDF retains the exact travel to a library. Readers feel comfortable read- PCs
Power Macintosh computers
look and feel of the laid out ing Adobe eBooks because they retain the exact
pages, and libraries benefit formatting of the printed versions.
from the rich set of digital
Ideal for libraries
rights management features
eLib believes that Adobe eBooks are becoming
in Adobe Content Server.” more than just a novelty for Swedish libraries,
Fabian Fischer especially because they offer a way to cut operat-
Chief technology officer
eLib ing costs in half. On average, each paperbound
book that is checked out of a library costs
$3 in personnel costs, book wear and tear,

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