PRESERVING EBOOKS: PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE A Series of Perspectives Trevor Owens Maureen Pennock Library of Congress USA UK [email protected] [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8857-388X https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7521-8536

Faye Lemay Tobias Steinke Library & Archives Canada Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Canada [email protected] [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3999-1687

Abstract – This panel will present and discuss though we also have a small number of MOBI files. different eBook workflows and challenges from four There are around 400,000 NPLD eBooks in the national libraries, considering a range of issues from collection with access rates at around 5,500 per month. technical complexities to evolution of the content type We also have a substantial number of digitized books and changes in the publishing/collecting landscape. published under commercial partnerships with Google Keywords – digital preservation, ebooks, ingest, formats, scale, access and Microsoft. Going forwards, we have an interest in Conference Topics – The Cutting Edge: Technical Open Access eBooks published outside of the UK and Infrastructure & Implementation; Exploring New eBooks published as mobile apps. Horizons Current challenges include ensuring an uninterrupted supply to readers during a forthcoming repository I. OVERVIEW migration, and delivering access to all six UK Legal eBooks are the backbone of many a National Library Deposit Libraries in line with regulation requirements for collection, constituting a substantial proportion of the single sequential access. Active research areas include digital content our readers expect to be able to access collection and preservation of mobile apps and and consult. Our digital preservation activities reflect evolution of the EPUB format. this, with established infrastructures and workflows for B. eBooks at the Library of Congress eBook acquisition, ingest, management and access, all at scale. Yet the eBook as a content type is evolving, The U.S Library of Congress has acquired eBooks and user expectations for access are evolving alongside. through a wide range of different programs and Dealing with this requires both a responsive framework initiatives. For years, the institution has received and and an eye on the horizon. acquired eBooks through its Cataloging in Publication Program, special relief agreements for copyright This panel brings together experts from leading deposit, web archiving, and other routine transfer national libraries to openly discuss various elements of methods for acquisition. their respective eBook preservation activities and research programs, and explore where similarities and In support of the digital collecting plan, staff across differences may lie. Below we summarize the eBook the institution are currently working to expand these collections at each organization, existing challenges, efforts and to pilot acquiring, preserving, and delivering and research activities. selected open access eBooks. The majority of this content is in PDF and EPUB formats, but the institution A. eBooks at the British Library has copies of eBooks in a much wider range of formats Since 2013 The British Library has collected eBooks as well. As outlined in the Library of Congress Digital under the UK’s Non-Print (NPLD) Strategy, it is necessary to plan for work around eBooks Regulations. Our preferred formats are EPUB and PDF in terms of exponential collection growth. To that end, 16th International Conference on Digital Preservation iPRES 2019, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Copyright held by the author(s). The text of this paper is published under a CC BY-SA license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). DOI: 10.1145/nnnnnnn.nnnnnnn

a key area of focus for the institution is working to scale - Do you have preferred formats for eBook up and enhance workflows and processes. preservation; if so, what are they and why? C. eBooks at the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek - What are the biggest challenges you have encountered in collecting, preserving and The German National Library has currently around providing access to eBooks? 1 million eBooks in the formats PDF and EPUB, equating to approx. 16% of all collected digital publications - What changes have you seen in your eBook (excluding digitized objects). The German legal deposit collection over the past decade and how have collection has included eBooks since 2006. eBooks are you responded? ingested in the digital preservation system of the - How are you monitoring the publishing German National Library. All eBooks are analyzed and landscape for more changes going forwards? validated, resulting in generation of a risk analysis ‘ingest level’. Checks include tests on copy protection Panelists will discuss answers in advance of the session especially in PDF files. There is a separate repository for to ensure answers are representative of the variety in giving access. our approaches, thus ensuring we provide sufficient conflicting perspectives to create interesting discussion. In an ongoing internal project all aspects of the Attendees will be encouraged to ask additional digital workflows are currently being optimized for a questions of the panelists during an open-ended Q&A better performance. This includes using a common session. workflow engine, replacing the repository for access with something more fitting and consolidating the III. PANELISTS different workflows for digital objects including eBooks. Maureen Pennock is Head of Digital Preservation at D. eBooks at Library & Archives Canada the British Library. She sits on the Digital Preservation LAC has been acquiring eBooks of various different Coalition Board of Directors and co-chairs the DPC formats since the 1990’s. Digital legal deposit Special Interest Group for Digital Preservation in legislation came into effect in 2006, though National Libraries, Archives and Museums. She is also participation in the legal deposit program varies with Chair of the UK Legal Deposit Libraries’ Digital commercial/retail publishers and scholarly communities Preservation Committee and a member of the UNESCO lagging behind government and self-published content. PERSIST initiative. The current technical platform for eBook acquisition Dr. Trevor Owens serves as the first Head of Digital is based on a pilot project created in 1994. In 2018, LAC Content Management at the U.S. Library of Congress. embarked on an initiative to modernize its systems and, In addition, he teaches graduate seminars in digital as part of that, procured Preservica as a DAM and a history for American University’s History Department Digital Preservation Solution. New information package and graduate seminars and digital preservation for the specifications for published heritage collections are University of Maryland’s College of Information, where currently being developed for use within Preservica. In he is also a Research Affiliate with the Digital Curation addition, LAC’s Published Acquisitions sector is working Innovation Center to implement a collection gap analysis and monitoring Tobias Steinke works at the German National framework in order to measure and expand Library on the conceptual development of digital participation in the Legal Deposit program. Another key preservation and is responsible for the web archiving activity is the development of a seamless platform for project of the library. He has been involved in several publishers and authors to transfer digital content and national and international projects about digital metadata to LAC. One of the desirable outcomes is to preservation and standardization. ensure that streamlined workflows from acquisition to preservation are developed. Faye Lemay has been the Manager of Digital Preservation at Library and Archives Canada for nearly II. PANEL STRUCTURE a decade and has been the driving force in the development and deployment of a comprehensive Following short introductions on the state of the digital preservation program. She oversees the long- practice to acquire, preserve, and deliver eBooks at term preservation of Canada’s digital documentary each institution, panelists will then move on to discuss heritage comprised of published heritage, government a range of questions such as: records and private archives. - How does your organization staff and support The panel will be moderated by Paul Wheatley, eBook acquisition, preservation and access? Head of Research & Practice at the Digital Preservation - How have you embedded preservation support Coalition. Paul is an experienced panelist and into your end to end workflows? moderator with many years of experience working with digital collections and in digital preservation.

iPRES 2019 - 16th International Conference on Digital Preservation 2 September 16- 20, 2019, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.