Toledo library users soon may be able to add long-sought-after ebooks to their Nook or Kindle devices as easily as they check out a physical copy of a book.

The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library has announced that it collaborated with 73 libraries throughout the United States and Canada to release a statement calling for improved ebook services.

"We're all in this together," Clyde Scoles, the director of the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library, said. "I think we all have a responsibility here in terms of access to ebooks … Joining with one voice will go a long way in conveying our message."

Known as the ReadersFirst Initiative, the group library statement — written and released by the New York Public Library — features four major principles, all of which pertain to easier and more comprehensive ebook access, including demands for ebook compatibility on a variety of devices and a comprehensive database of library materials.

Such demands, the statement said, are inhibited by book publishers, which "are not required to sell ebooks to libraries — and many do not."

The initiative is not looking to reach one publisher in particular, but rather is aiming to reach all of the large publishing houses.

Mr. Scoles attributed the publishing industry's reluctance to provide ebooks to money issues, but he maintained that the bottom line in the initiative is the need for open access.

"We need to make sure that the public has access to these ebooks in the same way that they've come to rely on physical books," he said.

Mr. Scoles said that, although some libraries might be concerned that ebook access will detract from use of a library's physical book collection, the prospect of a larger ebook collection is "exciting" and attractive.

Seventy percent of the population of Lucas County has library cards.

Of this population, Mr. Scoles said, many make use of the digital and physical collections that the library has to offer.

Micah May, director of strategy at the New York Public Library, said the growth in circulation of physical books has increased in the last five years.

Mr. May said he believes the ReadersFirst Initiative struck a chord with many libraries, which have been discussing the issue individually for a long period of time.

"Many libraries have been frustrated and concerned about their future and the role that ebooks will play in that," he said.

The timing of the ReadersFirst Initiative coincides with the changes in ebooks that have occurred in the past year, as improvements in technology and increased marketing efforts for the Nook and Kindle have taken place.

"Downloadables have become much more part of the mainstream in the last year or so as more and more book titles have become available," Mr. Scoles said.

Mr. Scoles is to travel this weekend to the Columbus Metropolitan Library to meet with some of the leaders who signed the Read- ersFirst Initiative.

While there, he said, library representatives plan to strategize about how to collaborate with publishers and create business models both publishers and libraries can agree on.

For now, the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library must be content knowing that it is moving in a positive direction, he said.

"It's a baby step, but the first step in the right way," Mr. Scoles said. "We expect others will join."

Contact Madeline Buxton at: mbuxton@theblade.com or 419-724-6368.

First Published June 11, 2012, 6:13 a.m.