Librarians rejoice! The Supreme Court of the United States insisted in its Wiley v. Kirtsaeng decision that we can legally lend foreign-manufactured materials!
The case was about textbooks and textbook-market arbitrage, though. That’s worth keeping sight of. Extrapolating from reactions on all sides, what does the Wiley v. Kirtsaeng decision likely mean for the textbook-publishing business, and what can textbook publishers and libraries do if they don’t like that?
E-Textbooks Redux: What Does Kirtsaeng Mean to the Market? | Peer to Peer Review
By on April 9, 2013 Leave a Comment
Predatory Publishers | Peer to Peer Review
By on April 4, 2013 8 Comments
There are definitely publishers who come to mind when I hear the expression “predatory publishers.” My first thought is of the high-profile academic publishers who are increasing their journal prices by ten or 20 percent per year, leaving libraries with impossible choices to be made between maintaining their journal subscriptions in key fields or buying [...]
Audio Spotlight: Marketing Strategies Help Vitalize Audiobook Collections
By on April 4, 2013
The audiobook industry continues to grow in near-equal measure in both the library and retail sectors, with the Audio Publishers Association (APA) ballparking sales at an all-time high of $1.2 billion. Libraries are in a real position to take advantage of the trend. Yet with diminished AV budgets, limited title and format availability, and a constant influx of competing downloadable and streaming offerings from the consumer realm, the prospect can be daunting. For libraries wanting to reap the benefits of increased awareness and discovery of their audio holdings, LJ spotlights some best practices in audiobook promotion, discusses some of the challenges inherent to the medium, and proposes new ways of thinking about audio that might even make it a catalyst for moving print.
Ten Questions with the Library Publishing Coalition
By on April 2, 2013 Leave a Comment
More than 50 academic libraries, in collaboration with the Educopia Institute, founded the Library Publishing Coalition (LPC) this January. The project initially emerged from conversations between Purdue University, the University of North Texas, and Virginia Tech. LJ caught up with the co-authors of the LPC’s founding documents—Julie G. Speer, Associate Dean for Research and Informatics, University Libraries Virginia Tech, and Charles Watkinson, Director and Head of Purdue Libraries’ Scholarly Publishing Services and the Purdue University Press—to find out how the LPC is progressing.
Six Questions with Damon Jaggars, former JLA Editor in Chief
By on March 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
Damon E. Jaggars, Associate University Librarian for Collections & Services at the Columbia University Libraries, recently stepped down as editor of the Journal of Library Administration (JLA), along with the rest of the editorial board, because of disagreement with the publisher’s licensing terms. LJ caught up with him to hear his reasoning and plans for the future.
Research Librarians Discuss New Ways to Support Scholars
By on March 11, 2013 1 Comment
The stable and predictable days of the 20th century, when research libraries could rely on their prized local collections to define their distinct and distinguished place on campus, are long gone.
The 21st-century’s user-centric networked world and the concomitant Sturm und Drang of cyber scholarship have caught research libraries in a seemingly unending flux. Traditional practices and services are no longer adequate to support scholars, but how best to reassess and redefine services, how best to reposition the library within the scholarly enterprise, how best to add new value, remains an ongoing, critical challenge.
Thirty-two research librarians gathered March 5-6 in Scottsdale, AZ, at a symposium hosted by Ex Libris to discuss this challenge, which is as prickly, vast, and shifting as the nearby Sonoran Desert.
Gale Cengage Strikes Smithsonian Digitization, Distribution Deal
By on February 28, 2013 Leave a Comment
Gale Cengage today announced a licensing agreement with the Smithsonian Institution to distribute Smithsonian assets into the library and academic space. Though it originally grew out of a public RFP issued by the Smithsonian to digitize its Smithsonian Magazine and Air and Space magazine resources, it has grown into something much more ambitious in scope.
Materials Mix: Investigating Trends in Materials Budgets and Circulation
By on February 19, 2013 Leave a Comment
Fifteen years ago, Library Journal launched its first annual book-buying survey of public libraries nationwide. Although materials budgets were referenced, the report focused almost exclusively on book budgets and book circulation.
This year, in long-overdue recognition of what today’s collections really look like—and what the reports have been covering for years—the entire effort has been rebranded the materials survey. Further distancing itself from its roots, the new survey will leave comparison of operating costs to LJ’s annual budget survey and concentrate exclusively on budget and circulation trends for the wide array of materials in public libraries today.
Public Libraries: ALA Releases “E-Book Business Model Scorecard”
By on January 25, 2013
From the American Library Association Digital Content Working Group:
The report, which was created by the ALA Digital Content & Libraries Working Group (DCWG), can be used by librarians to weigh ebook contract variables most important to their library. The report assesses 15 ebook contract variables of importance to libraries, ranging from ebook title inclusion, to ebook pricing, to immediate patron access. These variables include important ebook lending characteristics, such as ebook revenue streams for publishers and ebook accessibility for people with disabilities.
OverDrive & Big (Private) Data | Editorial
Who owns library and patron user data? Libraries think they do but will that matter in an increasingly competitive landscape where data is very valuable?