Robert Cartolano
Associate Vice President, Technology & Preservation
Columbia University
Library leaders and institutions affirm the importance of interoperability and the shared standards that enable them to provide the best possible reading experience and long-term management and sustainability of library collections. Currently, the fragmented ebook publishing and aggregation landscape relies on multiple vendors with different standards and limits the ability of libraries to provide a consistent reading experience for students and faculty. The presentation will describe an effort to obtain the endorsement and support from library leaders and ebook providers to adhere to open standards to provide a consistent, interoperable user experience and increase the overall use and adoption of ebooks. The talk envisions an academic ebook market that provides a consistent, non-fragmented user experience and vendor development that utilizes open standards to allow for innovation in the marketplace.
