UO and OSU Begin Sharing E-Books via ILL

The growth in e-books in library collections has been both boon and frustration for many patrons, since electronic items are typically excluded from interlibrary loan sharing. University of Oregon and Oregon State  University recently began a new sharing partnership that extends to e-books. Argumentation in Artificial Intelligence is the first e-book  title OSU has loaned, and the first UO has borrowed. It arrived in a zip file of 25 chapters attached in an email. The patron, a faculty member, enthused: “I like it–a lot–at least for this kind of book. I wouldn’t want to read a novel this way, or a long philosophical book like one I am reading now; however, for a technical anthology like this one, the format is perfect.” According to Margaret Bean, Resource Sharing Librarian at UO Libraries, they are exploring different means of transmitting these books: email attachments, links to servers, etc.