New Report from OECD: E-books: Developments and Policy Considerations
Here’s a new report from OECD. It’s part of their digital content series and will likely be of interest to many of you. We’re going to give a thorough read asap. The document runs 70 pages, PDF (other formats available) and is divided into four sections:
+ Main Findings
+ E-Book Ecosystem
+ Trends
+ Policy Issues
Title
E-books: Developments and Policy Considerations
Source
OECD
Abstract
Books have undergone a massive transformation from a physical object to something entirely different: the electronic book, or “e-book”. This report provides background on e-book markets and examines various policy issues related to e-books. These include differing tax rates in countries between physical books and e-books, consumer lock-in to specific platforms, limitations on how users can read and share their purchased content, and a lack of transparency about how data on their reading habits is being used.
The report includes a few paragraphs about library lending of ebooks on Page 9 of the PDF version.
The PDF version is embedded below. MOBI and EPUB versions are also available. OECD has also posted a chart showing VAT for books and ebooks in seven European countries.
UPDATE: The MOBI and EPUB versions appear to be unavailable at the moment (11/1/12; 5pm EDST). Check back. Here’s where we grabbed the links from.
E-books: Developments and Policy Considerations
Many thanks to J.A. Jacobs for the tip.
Filed under: Data Files, Libraries, News, Patrons and Users

About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.