LISNews: Librarian News

Books were still available for checkout Tuesday but from the sidewalk outside the vacant city building that briefly had been occupied as a "people's library" before police shut it down.

Ten to 15 people left the property at 1449 Miller Ave., near International Boulevard, shortly after officers entered the building at about 11 p.m. Monday and told the activists they were trespassing, said Officer Johnna Watson, a police department spokeswoman.

The Cleveland Public Library has installed a portable reading room in a trendy downtown district in the hopes that locals who flock to the area to dine and shop will also check out the library’s new open-air book kiosk.

Dubbed the BookBox, the custom-designed galvanized metal and reclaimed wood structure, which opened July 21, houses about 200 books, offers free wireless, and makes laptops available for Internet browsing. The compact mobile unit resides in a newly renovated park in Cleveland’s lively Market Square District, which is also home to a growing population of artists, local food producers, trendy restaurants, and shops.

The idea is to entice city dwellers and suburbanites, who frequent the area’s boutiques and dining spots, to also stop by the CPL’s warm weather book kiosk. “It’s a great opportunity to tout our services,” CPL public services director John Skrtic told LJ.

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In the "Your Money" section of the NYT there is this article: On Borrowing Digital Books From the Library

Line from article: Many publishers are nervous that borrowing e-books from libraries is too easy and will cut into digital sales, so they refuse to sell them to libraries, or restrict the number of times a digital book can be loaned.

The author then goes on to discuss the travails she has had getting ebooks from the library and wraps up the piece with this line - So much for free, easy reading. For my budget’s sake, I can only hope that publishers and libraries find a way to cooperate soon on making electronic books more readily available for borrowing.

Comment: I know there are layers of issues in regards to publishers and libraries and ebooks. For example there is the argument that libraries provide exposure for books that people would not have discovered otherwise and this can generate sales. Yet after reading the totality of this piece it is not hard for me to understand why publishers are edgy. People so quickly want to connect the concept of ebooks with FREE.

Marketplace story about Harvard cutting journals to save money.