The digital library of the Turin Civic Libraries bct.medialibrary.it use the platform MLOLwhose operating characteristics are described in detail in the section Help of the portal, in particular in the General Guide and in the Frequently Asked Questions.
However, the user experience also depends on the ways in which the editorial platforms make the contents available in MLOL and on the related management choices adopted by the Turin civic libraries.
These choices are dictated by an evolving scenario, also as a consequence of the integration with SBAM, and are subject to verificationbased on the data collected and the readers’ requests.
From 2024, for increase the amount of titles offered and for eliminate the need to book the most requested titles, with consequent long waits, the Turin civic libraries have chosen to adopt on an experimental basis a different management model from the one followed previously: instead of purchasing individual e-books, the entire Availability of the entire catalogue of titles made available by publishers (both new releases and “catalogue” titles). By proceeding in this way, all titles are immediately available and can be borrowed by multiple readers at the same time without having to resort to reservations for the most requested titles.
The model is “for consumption”: the cost of each loan is deducted from the available credit and all titles on the platform are available as long as there is credit available. When the credit for a specific publishing platform is exhausted, the related titles are “Not available for your library”, until the next recharge.
Given the need for manage the budget available for the current year, the top-ups have been sized on the basis of the demand recorded for the various editorial platforms and are distributed over time on a weekly basis (Monday to Friday), trying to limit the period of unavailability of the titles as much as possible. Unfortunately, continuous availability cannot be guaranteed because the budget, although increased over the years, would still not be sufficient to face the increased number of readers.
However, it has been considered preferable to have to access MLOL a few more times to check that the title is available again (for credit recharging) rather than being forced to wait even several months to obtain the reserved e-book.
In light of these premises, some practical advice:
- to limit the visibility of titles to only those actually available at the moment, always use the filter “Only titles available now” (found in the left column within the “Other ebook filters” menu)
- what is not available today it will be in the next few days: the system informs the Turin Civic Libraries of the exhaustion of the credit and, with the methods described above, Refills are regularly provided
- what is not currently available in the digital library of the Turin Civic Libraries may be available in that of the SPAM – sbam.medialibrary.itSince July 10th, both digital libraries are accessible using the same credentialsso it can be useful look there too.