Brenda Mead

The main advantage is that books are available immediately – if you want to read something and it is available as an eBook from the library, you can start reading the book in minutes. Also, there are no overdue fees – books will just become unreadable after the three week loan period. From a library point of view, there will no longer be a problem with books being damaged or lost. We may also have the opportunity to reach new readers – those who are not able to visit the library, whether because of opening hours, mobility issues or for any other reason, will now be able to borrow books from the comfort of their living room.

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It is too early to evaluate how successful the service will be – both in terms of financial viability, and in terms of assessing whether we are reaching readers who might not otherwise be reached. The main problem at the moment is the lack of availability of titles, with many of the big publishers not allowing libraries to loan their titles and their technical platform; the better our offer of titles, the more users we are likely to attract. But our suppliers are working on issues such as the ease of downloading and the availability of titles, and we are confident that the offer will improve in the future.