All Things Being Equal: The Development and Functionality of Occam's Reader

Abstract

In a previous report in this series on Occam’s Reader, Ryan Litsey briefly discussed the history leading to the development of the Occam’s Reader software as well as some of the implications such a system can have on the academic libraries of the future (see Litsey, 2013). However, some readers may wonder how Occam’s Reader works and how they might be able to integrate the system into their existing model of interlibrary loan (ILL). In this report we will lay out the development of the software system, discuss how it integrates with existing ILL systems, discuss some of the future improvements, and present challenges we have encountered in our initial pilot testing with the libraries of the Greater Western Library Alliance. Early in the development of Occam’s Reader, we discussed the most feasible way to develop a system for the interlibrary loan of eBooks. We examined existing systems that could provide user access to protected eBooks. The first such system that came to mind was EZproxy. This system works well to grant access to authorized users, and we hoped to use a similar model to grant outside users limited, time-sensitive access to eBooks. However, EZproxy has one simple drawback: it works too well. Once an authorized user has access to a library’s materials, they can simply modify the URL and gain access to the entire set of digital content under that provider. We therefore decided that the EZproxy model was not feasible for eBook ILL. We went back to the drawing board where we began with a simple thought experiment. We asked ourselves, “What is the easiest way to loan an eBook?” From that premise came the building blocks of what would eventually become Occam’s Reader. Our first thoughts on the subject were around the idea of transmitting eBook content from one university to a secure third-party web server. At that third-party server, the patron from the borrowing institution would access the eBook content as needed. With this simple model, we had the makings of a secure and sustainable method of eBook sharing. The next step was to determine how we would get the eBook content from the lending library to the third-party server. Our solution for that was