Comments on: Ebooks and Libraries Don’t Mix

By: Jean Costello

Jean Costello — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 23:35:50 +0000

Hi Waffling – I have a vision for a library renaissance that is vivid and rich. I’m happy to share it with you, or bandy about anything else on your mind, if you’d like to contact me. I correspond with library folk from across the U.S. and Canada and would be happy to hear from you too.

Regards,
Jean

By: waffling about my career

waffling about my career — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 18:58:11 +0000

Jean, You nailed it, and you speak to a dilemma facing those of who do see the big issues, want to reform libraries to better benefit our patrons, but also realize that as “lone workers in small auto parts factories” we are highly unlikely to get the ball rolling. Librarians need to be organized to seek reform accross organizational lines, but we won’t come together unless or until we’re faced with an exestential threat that a critical mass can see and have the will to see. Unfortunately, a lot of librarians got into this line of work precisely because revolution and/or creativity wasn’t our thing.

Do we choose to stagnate or choose to transform? And even if we decide to transform, do we have the neccessary creativity, will, resources, value proposition and a external climate that will allow us to redefine the profession? All the transformational leadership in the world wouldn’t save the Buggy Whip Industry. I don’t think librarians are the 21st century equivalent, but I’m less convinced of that than I was a year or two ago.

The answer to that question means a lot to me, because I’m not particularly interested in lingering in a dying profession. The answer will probably become clear in the next 3-5 years. So in the meantime I pursue side projects that I can grow into escape routes, all the while doing everything possible in my corner of libraryland to reduce the chances that I’ll need to use them.

By: Justine Graykin

Justine Graykin — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 17:21:40 +0000

One thing that publishers and (big name) authors seem to have forgotten is that not every book that goes out the door of a library is a lost sale. Many, I might even dare say most, of what patrons borrow are books they otherwise wouldn’t have sampled. The fact that it costs them nothing to try the book encourages them to take risks with new authors. This is the strategy behind free samples, a strategy that other authors have used to great advantage, developing a fan base that is then willing to pay for their work.

In their greed to squeeze every last penny out of the market, publishers and (big name) authors are shooting themselves in the foot.

By: Overworked Librarian

Overworked Librarian — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:29:19 +0000

Sorry I got so riled up, I forgot to respond to this post! This e-books debate seems to have gotten out of hand. Publishers don’t need libraries. I hate to say it, but nonprofit is akin to charity and the publishers are in business to make money. Libraries pay for the materials we lend out but every check-out is money that the publisher and author will lose out on; unless the item is so awesome that the patron must own their very own copy of it.

Digital items are vulnerable because people can easily find a way to copy the item and now they ‘own’ it for all time not just the lending period.

Librarians need to be realistic and stop acting like we don’t know people can rip our music, movies and mp3 audio books easily.

Now one might argue that the underprivileged people we serve wouldn’t buy the items because they cannot afford them, but most consumers are poor… (the 98% poor versus the 2% rich). Rich people (including publishers) did not become rich by giving things away for free and they are not going to do it just because we beg them to.

Gosh, I sound so pessimistic.

By: Overworked Librarian

Overworked Librarian — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:18:29 +0000

@Public Servant
I understand your frustration. I am a Outreach Librarian in a public library. I can put anything on our bulletin board so I don’t relate in that regard but I agree that the ‘bosses’ of the public library are the trustees which is so backwards. For this reason I am looking to work in academic libraries because at least the people in charge are more educated. Any citizen of the area ‘elected’ to the board of trustees can have power over a library, regardless of their experience or level of common sense! I am in a library where the board members were elected by default because no one else ran against them. They didn’t even have enough people run so they have always been one member short.

These board members are canterkerous and self seeking. They spend money on everything except new books. They have no experience and no interest in using the library.

By: Public Servant

Public Servant — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 16:59:35 +0000

Do you really think there is a “library industry”? I don’t know about you, but in my job as a reference librarian in a public library, my ultimate bosses are the elected town officials also known as the board of trustees. I wish I worked in a company where initiative and out-of-the-box thinking was valued. I wish my graduate education, work experience, abilities, talents and passion might afford me the opportunity to work my way up to positions of increasing responsibility and decision-making power. I have been in this “field” for over 10 years, and I still cannot place an announcement on our bulletin board without prior approval.

By: Anamosa Librarian

Anamosa Librarian — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 16:45:12 +0000

Maybe libraries and ebooks mix, and maybe they don’t. But there won’t really be any way to tell unless we try. I’ve got a petition going on Change.org. Please sign and pass it on! If enough people speak up, publishers will have to sit down at the table, at least.

http://www.change.org/petitions/hey-publishers-let-libraries-lend-ebooks

By: Libraryman

Libraryman — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 15:58:51 +0000

Oh yes, a cracked article in Library Journal. This is a great occassion. (and a great article)

By: Jean Costello

Jean Costello — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 14:16:12 +0000

MS, sadly many of the clueless supervisors and incompetent colleagues you see started out as you did. They were pulled down into the quicksand and suffocated. This is a huge institutional problem the community pretends isn’t there, thereby compounding it.

By: MS

MS — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 01:00:16 +0000

This will definitely be the least humble thing I will ever write, but when starting my first library job, at a public library, I was one of those people–driven to succeed, hard working, etc. Over the course of this job, and my current job (academic library), I am slowly having the will to live (well, not really live, but more accurately the will to succeed) beaten out of me by clueless supervisors, inane policies and regulations, co-workers whose incompetence borders on the criminal, laughable “wages,” etc. etc. etc. So I tend to agree with your assessment of librarians (well, at least some of them) doing the best they can under the terrible glass ceilings that seem to characterize this profession.