eBook Borrowing from the BAnQ Montreal – followup

September 22, 2011

Further to my blog entry yesterday regarding ebook borrowing from the BAnQ in Montreal, I received a very useful and informative reply from them which I would like to share with you:

Thank you for sharing your comments regarding our ebook collections. We recognize that the process includes numerous steps and can be cumbersome at some times. Please find below some information about recent developments in our services.

Finding ebooks on our portal

Regarding the visibility of our ebook collections on our website, we have recently implemented a new page entirely dedicated to ebooks. There is a link to it on our homepage, at the right side (where it says Livre numériques on a green banner). The page has not been translated into English yet, but we hope that our subscribers will be able to navigate our ebook collections easily from this page and will find answers to most of their technical difficulties in the page’s FAQ (Foire aux questions
:http://www.banq.qc.ca/ressources_en_ligne/livres-numeriques/index.html. This page is updated regularly.

Once you are on the Livres numériques page, you may use the search box to search for ebooks in the Iris catalogue (it is a different search box from the one that you have used on our Online Resources pages). You may also access the Iris catalogue’sAdvanced search screen and check the Numeric books option. All ebooks are indexed in the Iris catalogue. There is, however, a small indexing delay between the appearance of a new ebook in Numilog or EBSCOhost and its inclusion in the Iris catalogue. We strive to keep this delay as small as possible.

Reserving borrowed ebooks

The portal eBooks on EBSCOhost allows users to add their name on a waiting list for an item that is currently borrowed. However, as you mention it, this option is unfortunately unavailable in Numilog.

Transferring ebooks on a mobile device

Dowloading an ebook from Numilog or EBSCOhost on a mobile device is indeed more complicated than it is for a free ebook, especially for the first time. Numilog and EBSCOhost’s books are protected by copyright. Providers therefore must use technological solutions to ensure that copyright will be respected by users. Due to the wide range of technologies currently available on the market and the commercial rivalries that sometimes cause compatibility issues, it is difficult to ensure that the procedure will be clear and simple for every device.

That being said, as you mention it, this technology will likely become simpler and more accessible as more and more people get accustomed to ereading. We value our users’ comments and keep working towards a better service. In the meantime, do not hesitate to contact our reference services if you encounter any other difficulties or have any other comment.

We thank you for the interest you have shown in Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

Do not hesitate to contact us as needed.

User services

I checked out the combined search page they mentioned and it did make a big difference to my searching.  That certainly resolved one of my issues with borrowing from the library.  Many of the other frustrations I experienced were not so much the library's fault

All kudos to the library, I was impressed by the depth of information they provided and their level of commitment to ebooks.  I look forward to seeing how things develop.

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