So, let's start off with something that made me smile:
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| Via: Meme Jelly |
Next up is something produced by some of the kids at a local middle school here called "In the Library." Trying to make a bunch of early teens think the library is a cool place to hang out is not easy, so hats off to everyone involved:
On a much less encouraging note, I see that Penguin has decided to "expand" its e-book lending program to libraries in Los Angeles and Cleveland. Wow, three whole cities now that these have been added to New York.
Can someone please tell me why publishers (and Penguin is not the only one guilty of this) believe it is necessary to have libraries re-purchase the same e-book every twelve months? I can understand limiting each copy to one patron at a time, but the idea of having to buy the same book again so soon does not make sense. It's not done that way with tree-books; those are kept on the shelves until they become stale or fall apart, whichever happens first. I realize that e-books do not wear out, but one year seems like a very short amount of time for using them. Do tree-books really last only one year on the shelves of a typical library? I find that hard to believe.
Note, too, that Penguin does not like the level of security offered by the commonly used OverDrive distribution system and is looking into alternative systems.
Simon & Schuster and Macmillan refuse to sell to libraries at all. You might want to keep that in mind when you spend your book budget, fellow readers. It works both ways.
And, finally, did you see "Paula Broadwell"reading from All In on C-Span (Saturday Night Live) last weekend? It's described this way on Hulu: "Paula Broadwell, the biographer of Gen. David Patraeus' book and one of the women in the center of a CIA sex scandal, gets rather personal during a reading of "All In." Here's the Hulu link.
I'm still working! At least for half this week.
ReplyDeleteAs far as publishers and library e-book lending goes, I've come to the conclusion that the whole thing has brought out big publishers' long-time semi-secret dislike of libraries. They consider libraries a money drain because, to them, each library book borrowed is a book not purchased. They also believe that print library books only last maybe a year, despite the large number of librarians who have told them otherwise. To publishers, e-books are like print books without that built-in fall-apart-in-one-year mechanism...unless they build it in themselves.
Great video - good for these kids!
ReplyDeleteThe picture reminds me off the weirdest thing I've heard from a flight attendant. "The plane is about to land, sir. Could you turn off your book?"
ReplyDeleteBooks would only fall apart in a years time if they are checked out almost constantly. Some of the people borrowing the books are pretty harsh with them. Also the publisher knows many aren't returned or will be damaged, so the library will probably be repurchasing the popular books.
ReplyDeleteElectronic stories of course wouldn't fall apart, but they would want to make about the same profit to be fair to the authors and others they pay as part of publishing it. Whether only one year is fair is another question all together.
I agree with you, Library Girl. Publishers are exposing their attitude toward libraries in a big way by over-restricting the use of e-books...or, in some cases, not making them to library collections at all.
ReplyDelete"Could you turn off your book?" Love, it John.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Erin. Libraries can't expect to check-out e-books forever; that would be unfair to publishers. Publishers, on the other hand, cannot expect libraries to pay more for the privilege of lending e-books than they currently pay for lending tree-books. A reasonable compromise just does not seem all that hard to find...
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