Holger Behrens, managing director, DiViBib

"If public libraries offer digital media such as e-books or audiobook downloads and in so doing provide a basic supply in this sector, that strengthens their penetration levels within the population", says Holger Behrens, managing director, DiViBib. "All the more so, when public libraries support the e-book reader too as from this autumn." DiViBib is a subsidiary of ekz.bibliotheksservice GmbH and on the one hand, it operates an individualised library platform for public libraries from which digital media can be borrowed. On the other, it sells digital media of all kinds to public libraries and functions for publishing companies as a retail bookseller specialising in public libraries.

The "Onleihe" - online lending - business model is simple. The DiViBib concludes general contracts with publishing companies for digital contents which it then offers to public libraries. When a library has purchased a copy of a title, this is also made available to users through the online lending system. A copy can only be lent out to one user at a time. A digital rights management (DRM) process ensures that at the end of the lending period, the medium is automatically returned to the library, that is, the borrower can no longer open it. "In the end, an "Onleihe" system works just like a physical library" says Behrens who sees this option as "development aid for the digital media market".

Since the start-up in May 2007, more than 120 libraries in Germany, Austria and Switzerland have been offering digital media to borrowers. But this means that in no way are all public libraries in the German-speaking world DiViBib customers, with the company so far more or less a lone player with its product and specialised know-how.

In terms of content, online lending - "Onleihe" - could also become of increasing interest for libraries and their users. On the one hand, there has been a noticeable growth in the availability of electronic fiction in recent times, and on the other, there is also growth in the range of foreign-language literature made available by libraries. "This is why we want in future to offer more English, French and Spanish-language literature in digital format", says Behrens who believes the German library market is certainly of interest to foreign publishing companies and their e-book programmes.