On Wednesday, September 17^th, Grenoble laun­ched BIBOOK, a new digi­tal book ren­tal ser­vice. Developed by De Marque, a com­pany based in Quebec, BIBOOK offers 300 books to the rea­ders of the city’s town libraries.

© Maïlys Medjadj – pla​ce​gre​net​.fr

Discovering the latest hip book on your tablet is now a rea­lity in the capi­tal of Isere. The town libra­ries in the city are laun­ching a new digi­tal service.

Following the foots­teps of Montpellier and Aulnay-Sous-Bois, Grenoble is the third French city to join a lar­ger pro­ject ini­tia­ted in 2013 and finan­ced by the Ministry of Culture and Communication, cal­led PNB (Prêt National en Bibliothèque).

Grenoble engages in this ambi­tious pro­gram, set to seduce digi­tal book lovers. In 2013, only 2,6% of the French popu­la­tion pur­cha­sed at least one EBook, against 53% for paper books, accor­ding to a poll conduc­ted by TNS Sofres for the Publishing Industry Monitoring Unit.

50 to 60 publishers

To ensure the suc­cess of the pro­gram, city libra­ries relied on the exper­tise of De Marque. The Canadian com­pany spe­cia­li­zed on this niche can already claim the deve­lop­ment of the digi­tal book plat­form for libra­ries throu­ghout Quebec, pret​nu​me​rique​.ca.

The choice of the com­pany was offi­cia­li­zed last January.
The BIBOOK inter­face also results from a fruit­ful col­la­bo­ra­tion with digi­tal publi­shers Feedbooks, Grenoble based libra­ries Le Square and Dilicom, PNB’s tech­ni­cal operator.

© Bibliothèque muni­ci­pale de Grenoble

Today, “50 to 60 publi­shers feed the data base with publi­ca­tions” explains Melanie Le Torrec, in charge of the Digital and Public Unit within town libra­ries in Grenoble. There, are fea­tu­red among others, publi­shers such as Gallimard, Denoël, Le Seuil or Plon.

The idea behind BIBOOK is to offer rea­ders the latest publi­ca­tions and to com­ple­ment the exis­ting offer in the stores.

An easy-to-use interface

Readers can access up to five EBooks at once over 28 days. Beyond that, the books are no lon­ger avai­lable. For now, 300 titles are avai­lable to the public. There should be “1000 titles at the end of 2014” adds Melanie Le Torrec.

© Bibliothèque muni­ci­pale de Grenoble

To enjoy the ser­vice, you are requi­red to sub­scribe to the town library, create an account on MonGrenoble and link it to your library account. The rea­der then has 24 hours to down­load the title on a tablet, a smart­phone or a computer.

The easy-to-use inter­face is desi­gned to tar­get large audiences and spread the digi­tal book expe­rience. A gro­wing mar­ket still bud­ding in France.

By Maïlys Medjadj

Translation by Cécile Boussier