SLA Europe was pleased to welcome Caroline Ball (University of Derby) and Rachel Bickley (London Metropolitan University), two members from the #ebookSOS campaign to share an update on their progress and their future plans.
What is the campaign about?
Barriers to educational ebook resources have long been a cause of concern for librarians. In the UK this concern was heightened during the 2020 lockdown, when many university campuses closed and students were forced to study remotely, resulting in an almost total reliance on digital resources.
Whilst some publishers temporarily made their collections freely available, others raised prices and restricted licences even further. Frustrated by the excessive costs, increasingly restrictive licensing and bundling models, 3 academic librarians in the UK launched a campaign calling for an investigation into ebook publishing.
Over 4,500 people have since signed the open letter, and there has been cross-sector and international support for the campaign. The UK Competition and Markets Authority are considering investigating.
Access to information is a global problem and is one we can only address together.
SLA Europe’s recording of the webinar can also be viewed below and also on our YouTube channel. We would also like to ask members to please consider making a charitable donation to our chosen charity, Half Moon Young People’s Theatre.
You can learn more about the campaign in the meantime via their website or following the discussion and updates on Twitter by following the hashtag #ebooksos.