On April 26, National Library Week focuses on Meeting Patrons Where They Are. Lyrasis supports libraries and their patrons with various services including two that focus specifically on public libraries: BiblioLabs and The Palace Project.
A segment of BiblioLabs is The Indie Author Project (IAP). IAP is a publishing community that includes public libraries, authors, curators and readers working together to connect library patrons with great indie-published books. IAP has helped hundreds of libraries engage their local creative community and assisted in getting more than 12,000 indie authors into their local libraries. Most importantly, the project has worked with top curation partners and librarians to identify hundreds of these as the best indie ebooks available to readers — so they can be sustainably circulated to library patrons with confidence.Through this publishing community, authors are able to submit ebooks directly to their local public library to then be vetted by industry editorial partners and regional library editorial boards. Being selected by these curators can lead to expanded discovery, distribution and networking opportunities.
BiblioLabs also offers an Open Access digital repository that’s available to anyone across the globe. This robust offering boasts a growing assortment of rich historical and locally curated multimedia content as well as high-quality Open Educational Resources. Our OA catalog allows for global discoverability of these unique digital exhibits and community collections from a wide range of library partners all with unlimited, simultaneous use and no barriers to access.
The Palace Project stands with libraries in their efforts to support the freedom to read and increase access to digital collections. With its streamlined design and ease-of-use, the Palace app allows libraries to meet their patrons where they are — regardless of age, ability or physical proximity to the library. By showcasing more of the library’s ebook and audiobook collections in one place, Palace increases discovery and highlights titles immediately available to patrons. Additionally, our collection of openly licensed content, the Palace Bookshelf, has been made available free-of-charge to anyone who downloads the Palace app today!
The Palace Project, which is currently in use in over 400 public libraries across the United States, provides patrons with a single app to access all of their library’s digital content. Users can access content across a library’s holdings from commercial ebook providers to open-access collection providers, publishers, and institutional digital repositories. The Palace App is available for iOS and Android. Download today!
The Palace Project is a division of Lyrasis, working in strategic partnership with Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). The Palace project is supported by funding from the Knight Foundation and Sloan Foundation.