Indie publishers put books on Bloomsbury's digital library shelf

03.03.10 | Philip Jones in The Bookseller

Faber, Quercus, Canongate and Allison & Busby have joined Bloomsbury’s digital library initiative, meaning that titles such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama will be accessible online by library users.

The initiative was launched a year ago by Bloomsbury as the Bloomsbury Library Online but has now been rebranded as the Public Library Online.

The development means four new "publisher shelves" have opened to library users: Faber Poetry Shelf including poems from T S Eliot; the Quercus Crime Shelf; a Canongate Bestsellers Shelf; and the Allison & Busby Morganville Vampires Shelf.

Library subscriptions to individual shelves start from only £250, with libraries charged £100 per 100,000 library users. The digital library shelves are hosted by Exact Editions, which makes digital versions of books and magazine available to libraries and consumers.

According to Bloomsbury, the Public Library Online now serves over 3m of the UK population. Blooomsbury said: "As libraries continue to face budget cuts, this library service continues to grow, offering a cost effective means for libraries to offer easy, simultaneous user online access to a wide range of bestsellers." It added that it hoped "more publishers" would join the service soon.

The books are readable from the Exact Editions website, or remotely via mobile phones or on apps.