For immediate release:
EDMONTON, AB, June 3, 2019 – Public libraries across Canada are aiming to improve the availability of eContent by launching the inaugural One eRead Canada with the Canadian Urban Libraries Council/Conseil des Bibliothèques Urbaines du Canada (CULC/CBUC).
One eRead Canada offers free, unlimited access to Glass Beads by Saskatchewan-born, Indigenous author Dawn Dumont in eBook and eAudiobook format. Glass Beads is a collection of short stories, focused on the lives of four First Nations people over two decades. The book offers a lens into their world while political, social and cultural change surrounds them. With this selection, One eRead Canada seeks to help foster national conversation around reconciliation, Indigenous experiences and the importance of #ownvoices stories.
Canadian public libraries are hitting a roadblock when accessing both eBooks and digital audiobooks for their customers. One eRead Canada is the latest initiative undertaken by CULC/CBUC to raise awareness of the prohibitive costs and purchasing restrictions public libraries face related to eContent. Previously, CULC/CBUC drew attention to major multinational publishers’ excessively high prices and restrictive purchasing models with their eContent for Libraries, opens a new window campaign.
Glass Beads’ publisher Thistledown Press is an independent Canadian publisher taking an active role in making eContent more accessible to the public in partnership with public libraries. CULC/CBUC Chair and EPL CEO Pilar Martinez is thrilled with the partnership, “We appreciate independent publishers like Thistledown Press who are willing to collaborate with libraries on issues of eContent access and innovative initiatives like One eRead Canada. We’re asking multinational publishers to follow suit on behalf of Canadian readers by working directly with our libraries to make all titles available. Programs like One eRead Canada demonstrate the positive effect public libraries have on the publishing industry,” says Martinez.
Library cardholders can instantly access Glass Beads by Dawn Dumont in eBook and eAudiobook format from June 3 to 30 with no holds or waitlists across all digital content platforms.
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About the Edmonton Public Library
The Edmonton Public Library (EPL) is proud to be 2014 Library of the Year, as well as the first public library in Canada to win Canada’s Most Admired™ Corporate Cultures award by Waterstone Human Capital, as of 2018! We’ve come a long way since 1913 when books were all you could find on our shelves… and we’re just getting started! Today, EPL carries everything you care about. We are Edmonton’s largest lender of all manner of information and entertainment. Our professionally trained staff take you beyond Google with the knowledge, discernment and desire to help you navigate a universe of information. The second most visited place in Edmonton, every year EPL hosts over 15.4 million in-branch and online visits across our 21 branches and website. We deliver our incredible content to you everywhere – in the library, at home or on your handheld device. Unmatched access and unrivalled value – that is today’s EPL. EPL is a registered charity and relies on donations to enhance services. Spread the words. www.epl.ca/give, opens a new window
For more information, contact
Marina Fernandes
Communications Coordinator
Edmonton Public Library
Office: 780.442.5019
Email: marina.fernandes@epl.ca, opens a new window
