E-ILL and Russian e-books

The purpose of this paper is to examine the challenges ILL librarians are faced with when trying to borrow or lend e-books through traditional interlibrary loan channels, especially in the context of international lending and borrowing. The authors use Russian language e-books and e-readers as a model for understanding the challenges presented by numerous file formats and e-reader types, multiple alphabets (e.g. Latin, Cyrillic), and national copyright laws and licensing restrictions. International ILL requests for e-books present a host of challenges beyond the usual licensing restrictions encountered in one's home country. A wide variety of unfamiliar and perhaps incompatible file formats, a lack of compatible e-readers, and national copyright laws are just a few of the barriers to obtaining e-books from abroad. It may become a regular part of the ILL librarian's job to develop protocols for locating digitized materials and forming working relationships with language specialists who can assist in providing access to these materials. This paper was originally presented as part of a panel presentation on e-books and interlibrary loan at the 2011 IFLA World Library and Information Congress.