Skip to main content

More on ebooks

First, here's the graphic (revised):



[Click on it to get a more readable size!]

Next, here's a little more text to describe my thinking about the issues faced by libraries this year.

From left to right -- in something like chronological order -- I think there are 7 key strategic directions:

* Free content. Thanks to the amazing Valerie Horton of CLiC, it took just two months to deliver about 500 classics to virtually any library that already knew how to load a MARC file. If memory serves, over 68 countries, and some 2000+ libraries have at least looked at the file, and may well have downloaded it. Whether we use public domain or Creative Commons titles, we've proved we can quickly add them to our "holdings," and thereby demonstrate that libraries are paying attention.

* Vendors. Overdrive we know about; 3M and Baker and Taylor are now rolling out products, too. But we have to be vigilant to ensure that the content shows up in our catalogs (instead of requiring one search per source, like databases), AND that we continue to get DISCOUNTS, not price hikes for materials that are far cheaper to produce and distribute than paper. Libraries are a cooperative purchasing agreement, and we contribute, today, some 10% of the entire publishing market's income, and for children's books, 40%. That deserves a discount.

* Training. We do public tech petting zoos, one-on-one support, and online training right now. But we can be more systematic about all of these. Where are the Youtube guides?

* We have to work econtent more smoothly into our systems and work flow. We need mobile apps for people to grab our content, perhaps managing it from a Dropbox-like cloud location. Monique (head of IT at Douglas County Libraries) tells me that the Adobe Content Server would allow us to grab any ebook, with or without Digital Rights Management, and circulate it ("check it out," for you non-librarians). We can restrict use to one-copy-at-a-time, just as we've done for over a century. We don't NEED a vendor to offer us that content-and-presentation service. We'll be testing this in the first half of the year. I'm working with an ALA task force to help us roll out a "give an eBook to the Library" national campaign, highlighting the issues involved. Like, if you buy an ebook, you own it, right? So you can give it away!

* Display: our prototype Digital Power Wall is under rapid development. Imagine a wall-sized iPad that let you browse ebooks, then check them out on the spot.

* Longer term, I'd like to see libraries step into the world of self-publishing, guiding local writers up to a level of quality, then offering their ebooks for public use.

* Finally, resource sharing. I haven't given much thought to this one yet. First we have to learn how to acquire, display, and manage these materials as well as we do everything else. But eventually, we'll want to loan them to other libraries. Valerie has already started thinking about this.

There's a lot libraries can and should do, right now, to do what we've always done: provide public access to the intellectual content of our culture.

Comments

Judy Van Acker said…
I enjoyed reading your seven strategies. Thanks for the visual representation for us visual learners. Loading content on an Adobe Content Server sounds intriguing. Hope you post more about that.
Have you heard anything about this? "Overdrive licensing prohibits schools from loading their “for private use only” software on our [school district] devices." Which means kids cannot load public libraries' Overdrive titles (or at least the OverDrive Counsel) on school district e-reader devices. At least that is what I think it means.
Jamie said…
Thanks, Judy. Reviewing this, I see I left off something important: apps. We need some very easy way for people to search and grab files without making them jump through so many hoops: freely downloadable apps created by us. These should be both for phones and for computers.
Joe Grobelny said…
i think loveland has some good vids on OD if you're looking, but not on YouTube:

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/library/video/Overdrive.htm

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Recently, a library patron challenged (urged a reconsideration of the ownership or placement of) a book called "Uncle Bobby's Wedding." Honestly, I hadn't even heard of it until that complaint. But I did read the book, and responded to the patron, who challenged the item through email and requested that I respond online (not via snail-mail) about her concerns. I suspect the book will get a lot of challenges in 2008-2009. So I offer my response, purging the patron's name, for other librarians. Uncle Bobby's wedding June 27, 2008 Dear Ms. Patron: Thank you for working with my assistant to allow me to fit your concerns about “Uncle Bobby's Wedding,” by Sarah S. Brannen, into our “reconsideration” process. I have been assured that you have received and viewed our relevant policies: the Library Bill of Rights, the Freedom to Read, Free Access to Libraries for Minors, the Freedom to View, and our Reconsideration Policy. The intent of providing all tha

Installing Linux on a 2011 Macbook Pro

I had two MacBook Pros, both 13" models from late 2011. One had 4 gigs of RAM, and the other 8. Both of them were intolerably slow. In the first case, I wound up installing CleanMyMac , which did arcane things to various files, and put up alerts to warn me about disappearing memory. But it made the machine useable again, albeit not exactly speedy. I changed some habits: Safari as browser rather than Firefox or Chrome. I tried to keep tabs down to four or five. The second Mac had bigger problems. Its charger was shot, but even with that replaced, the battery tapped out at 75%. More importantly, the whole disk had been wiped, which meant that it wouldn't boot. Recently, I had downloaded a couple of Linux distributions ("distros") on USB drives. Elementary OS 5.1 (Hera) was reputed to be a lightweight, beautiful distro that shared some aesthetics with the Mac OS. So I thought I'd give it a try. Ahead of time, I tried to read up on how difficult it might be to

The enemies of literature

Every year, apologists for the restriction of reading stumble over themselves to "mock" Banned Books Week. Walther (Oct 1, 2023's " The Enemies of Literature ") upholds the grand tradition. Complaints about banning, the argument goes, are simply false. Walther writes, "In zero cases since the advent of Banned Books Week has a local or state ordinance been passed in this country that forbids the sale or general possession of any of the books in question." Yet Texas HB 900 was passed on June 13 of this year. It requires book vendors to assign ratings to books based only on the presence of depictions or references to sex. If a book is "sexually explicit" and has no direct connection to required curriculum, it must be pulled from the school. (One wonders what happens to the Bible, and its story of Lot's daughters, first offered by their father for gang rape, and whom he later sleeps with.) In Arkansas, legislation stated that school and pu