LISNews Librarian And Information Science News

Gina Preoteasa: Thought you might be interested in news that Springer has finalized an agreement with OCLC, which means that libraries will no longer receive any invoices from OCLC for MARC 21 (AACR2) records for Springer eBooks delivered via the WorldCat Collections Sets Services. Springer will be covering these delivery costs.

For additional information on MARC Records for the Springer eBook Collection click here.

Hey, LISNews has company...Salem Press (they publish literary and history reference libraries in a variety of formats) is looking for the coolest library/librarian blogs around. Here's their contest announcement:

As you are probably aware, blogs about libraries have spread across the web. There are (literally) hundreds of people writing about books, libraries, librarians and related subjects. If you count the blogs that come from specific institutions, spreading local news, there are thousands of the things. Some are funny. Some are brilliant. Others, aren't.

Salem Press' staff includes many fans of library blogs. We're entertained and enlightened by them. So, we've decided to recognize the best efforts in the field. Not only to praise the praise-worthy but also to publicize the good stuff. To that end, we're hosting something we call the Library Blog Awards. We think there should be a well-organized directory of library blogs and a "peoples' awards" program of some kind to let folks know what blogs are best-liked and most widely read.

Go for it bloggers!! Thanks to the Effing Librarian for the tip!

Amazon is seeking to set up a physical base in Canada, The Bookseller has revealed, and has applied to the government to open a a "new Canadian business".

The move could lead to a huge shake-up of Canada's book trade. Amazon.com does not have a physical operation in the country, but sells books through its domain Amazon.ca. Moving into the country would mean the company could ship to Canadian consumers more quickly and cost-effectively. But to operate there, Amazon must receive permission from Canada's heritage ministry.

The application is subject to a confidential inquiry by the Canadian government, which will assess whether it breaks Canada's tough cultural protection rules, which are designed to prevent American influences from overpowering Canada's culture.

The move could prove to be a boon to Canadian publishers, but it would also hit the country's retailers. Dominant Canadian bookseller Indigo declined to comment.

Amazon launched its Canadian site in June 2002, amid protests from Canadian booksellers who argued that the online store violated regulations that prohibit foreign ownership. The Canadian government ruled that this was not the case since Amazon.com did not have a physical business in the country.

Story from Bookseller UK.

So much for being green and all that. At least eleven 15-year-old children were discovered to be working last year in three factories which supply Apple.

The company did not name the offending factories, or say where they were based, but the majority of its goods are assembled in China.
Apple also has factories working for it in Taiwan, Singapore, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, the Czech Republic and the United States.

Apple said the child workers are now no longer being used, or are no longer underage (i.e., they've grown up on the job). "In each of the three facilities, we required a review of all employment records for the year as well as a complete analysis of the hiring process to clarify how underage people had been able to gain employment," Apple said, in an annual report on its suppliers.

Telegraph UK.

I've spent a good part of the last day at the first annual Bookmark Collector's Virtual Convention BMCVC, where one of the presenters was Jen Funk Weber, who has created a program called Needle and ThREAD, Stitching for Literacy.
shown here
-a two-sided bookmark based on the old chicken/frog joke-

From her website: "In an effort to promote both literacy and needlework, Funk & Weber Designs is designing bookmarks. A minimum of 10% of profits from sales of Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy bookmark patterns will be donated to libraries, schools, and/or literacy programs." Sounds like a wonderful program to be shared in libraries.

Check out her Bookmark Challenge Kit.

Things are heating up for Amazon.com on the sales tax front again. The California Senate just passed a bill that would require online retailers like Amazon to collect sales tax on web purchases. According to reports, the measure was part of a $5 billion budget package making its way through the California legislature. Virginia, Colorado and Illinois are also considering sales tax bills targeting online retailers.

Amazon — which only collects sales tax in a handful of states, giving it an advantage over brick-and-mortar retailers — fought hard against a similar wave of bills last year, and managed to stomp out most of them. But for cash-strapped states, desperately seeking new sources of revenue, the "Amazon tax" continues to be a powerful draw.

California lawmakers introduced a similar bill last year, but Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger threatened to veto it, and the matter was dropped. But with California in the midst of a budgetary meltdown, the idea has popped up again. According to reports, the "Amazon tax" bill is expected to generate $107 million in tax revenue annually for California.

The measure has yet to be signed by the Governor, but with California in fiscal crisis, he may just sign the bill this time.

An Open Letter To The Library Community
What you can do
Here are three things you can do to oppose exclusive licensing agreements:
1.Raise your voice. Join the Facebook group "Librarians for Fair Access to Content." Tweet. E-mail us at fairaccess@cengage.com. Call publishers and information providers and share your library's mission; tell them why these licensing practices are bad for libraries.
2.Pass this message along to other librarians and those who make decisions regarding your funding levels. Get others involved. There's strength in numbers.
3.Don't reward the behavior. Work with information providers who support your mission and understand your needs.
As the cost of licensing content increases artificially, prices will go up. If you worry about information costs going up, we ask you to take a stand.

Explain the Silence to Me:
"So why are these librarians taking it? Why are they being quiet? I don’t have an answer for you – and so I’m hoping someone out there can answer this for me. If you signed a contract for one product and then are told you have to use another – do you just say okay? or do you move on or demand the product you originally wanted."
I even really like citrus fruits! And yet...
"I've been having unkind words about LibLime percolating in my head for a week which I've been not posting here, because I try not to be an unkind-words sort of person. But I no longer feel restraint about that."

OCLC and the Associated Press — Two Sides of the Same Information Provider Coin?
Two cooperatives — OCLCL1 on the bibliographic utility side and the Associated PressL2 on the newswire side — have the same pattern of activity:

* both are membership organizations,
* both seek to amplify the efforts of members (bibliographic records in one case, news stories and photographs in the other),
* both are reacting to threats to content under its purview, and
* both have prominent members experimenting with new forms of content delivery and use.

Over at American Libraries Sean Fitzpatrick writes when Stephen Abram did weigh in on Open Source, his harsh criticism created quite a dust-up on Twitter and the blogosphere. But Abram’s white paper may have done more to legitimize the role of open source software (OSS) in libraries than challenge it; if nothing else, Abram’s marketing piece revealed that open source ILSs are a threat to the vendor-based market.