Comments on: Libraries and Litigation

By: spencer

spencer — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 15:41:02 +0000

DAGS IS ON THE BALL! Let’s keep those rail lines running too!

By: anonymous

anonymous — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 19:31:29 +0000

I wonder how many people — including librarians — understand how much is coming out now exclusively as ebooks? It’s not like they can get a print copy instead. Not much of the big 6 stuff, of course, but libraries now can’t get at any version of as much as a third of the titles on Amazon’s top 100 Kindle most downloaded list.

By: spencer

spencer — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 14:28:06 +0000

I think it’s like anything- the market is finding it’s natural resting state.

As for me, now that I’m a boss (being a boss LIKE A BOSS, btw)- I’m attempting to balance the demand on a budget. I’m using Freading- or will be soon- and paying a little bit for smaller publishers’ titles to test if demand is really what demanders say it is.

As for litigation- I want to sue apple for ipads being to expensive for me to own one for every member of my family. Can I get a nonprofit together to do that?

How sad and stupid.

By: Dagny Taggart

Dagny Taggart — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 05:57:43 +0000

Can I suggest that going before congress is not an appropriate way to solve trumped-up “problems”? If the prices of the electron books are too high for your demand (as exhibited through library budget), then simply do not purchase them. “Problem” solved.

By: Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries

Dan Kleinman of SafeLibraries — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 01:02:15 +0000

I’ll tell you what gets me most about this eBook story. It’s that the ALA gets to set the tone in the media and the media will not go outside the ALA line. The AP, if I recall, took the ALA press release and basically reprinted it. For this story. This “Wahhhhh!” story.

The media, especially the library media, especially the ALA media, are not reporting on a much, much bigger story that happened at about the same time.

The author of the Children’s Internet Protection Act [CIPA] has revealed that the ALA has effective control of a third of American communities so they will not avail themselves of CIPA that enables communities to keep porn out of its libraries.

Given the ALA spent a HUGE amount of money and time on the CIPA case, given the ALA has a HUGE national influence regarding the CIPA case, one would think the CIPA author saying the ALA is intentionally misleading communities would be major news.

But it is not. On the other hand, one library media source removed a comment I made having the CIPA author’s link. Another media source, the Executive Editor of a certain library journal, abruptly got off the phone with me when I told him/her who I was. He/she never called back nor responded to my email about what the CIPA author said.

So the media pounds away on the eBook issue, but is completely silent, even actively working to remove exposure, of the CIPA author outing the ALA as endangering children nationwide.

That’s what gets me most about this eBook story. It pales in comparison to the significance of some organization that lost in the US Supreme Court getting to effectively thwart the law that people have been working towards for decades, with several previous attempts to protect children being shot down, and children remain exposed to harm as a result.

Can you imagine the outcry if someone thwarted library patron privacy laws? Oh yes, for that Judith Krug was in the New York Times stating she wished the Delran, FL, librarian had followed the privacy law instead of turning in an actual 9/11 terrorist to the police.

ALA harming children in a third of American libraries, says the CIPA author? Silence. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

See:

http://safelibraries.blogspot.com/2012/02/cipa-author-exposes-ala-deception.html

“CIPA Author Exposes ALA Deception; Ernest Istook Who Authored Children’s Internet Protection Act Calls Out American Library Association for Using Legal Tactics to Claim First Amendment Protection for Public Library Pornography Viewing, Causing Librarians to Be Indifferent and Leave Children Unprotected”

And thank goodness for columns like the AL’s where people can get around the ALA censors.

By: Jean Costello

Jean Costello — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:59:47 +0000

Christopher - Bobbi Newman agrees with you. Last week she posted, Should Libraries Get Out of the eBook Business?. It's already received over 130 comments and people are still weighing in.

By: Curt Tagtmeier

Curt Tagtmeier — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:45:59 +0000

Response to eBook publishing business plan: The idea that you need to limit downloads or raise prices to offset library downloads is ludicrous. You already have a barrier with library downloads and a reward with store downloads. Store downloads allow you to take your time to read a title, but library downloads do not. Only the diehard read every second users will take advantage of library downloads because of a lack of renewal possibility. What about the fact that libraries are starting to purchase the ebook devices and buy directly from the store for the missing authors and check those devices out. Hmmm, how will the publishers stop that?

By: Curt Tagtmeier

Curt Tagtmeier — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:33:36 +0000

Response to librarians being made non-essential:
I like to tell people all the time in our one-on-one and classroom training. There is no magic easy button for eBooks and their devices. Yes, technology does make life infinitely easier, but that does not necessarily mean that it is always easy. Why should eBooks be any different than when you learned to use a computer, Microsoft Word, or the Internet? There is a learning curve that requires a certain set of skills to download and successfully read an eBook. This leads to the next point that expectations are much too high by many novice users as to the ease of access for downloads. Why does this gap exist? One reason lies in the fact as allude to earlier that 75% of those who use dedicated e-readers are seniors. This group is not as tech savvy about technology and may not understand as well the actual process of downloading an eBook. They may look upon any explanation of a download as too much work, too much jargon because they do not have any prior experience to base it on. Recently, I tried using the app Overdrive uses for the iPhone and actually said to myself, “Gee, without prior experience with the iPod, this might be somewhat challenging.” The problem as I see it is twofold, the user expects an easier experience, but they also do not possess the skills to make that experience any easier.

By: Christopher Elliott

Christopher Elliott — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:58:41 +0000

Question – Why would a patron want to wait 5 months to read “The Hunger Games” on their kindle when there are 5 paper copies on the shelf in the library? Answer – because of the novelty of “OMG I got an e-reader and I gotta use it for EVERYTHING!!!”.

The idea is ridiculous, most libraries restrict the number of e-books anyway, which pretty much knocks a big reason for an e-reader out of the water. If their reader can hold 1000 books and you only let them have 3, is print that much worse?

If a library insists on e-books, concentrate on small publishers, independents and non-fiction, books that a patron would not be so quick to purchase from Amazon or Baker & Taylor.

As I’ve said before, the whole novelty of the e-reader will settle down in a few years and libraries will be in a better position to decide what they want and need to offer.