LISNews: Librarian News

Digital books are the fastest growing area of publishing. Libraries are seeing a surge in demand for e-book titles as well, but there's a downside. Most major publishers won't allow libraries to lend their titles, while others impose restrictions or charge double or triple the print price.

Piece on NPR (3 minute 41 sec. audio)

Opening to article:

You whippersnappers might not remember, but libraries used to have something called card catalogs. Each book’s index card told you which shelf housed the corresponding volume. You had to go fetch it on foot.

Nowadays, you look up a book on a library computer screen, but you usually have to go fetch it on foot.

Until recently, we’ve had the same situation with searching the Web. You could look up a Web page using Google and Bing, but you still had to go fetch it.

But that’s about to change. In the last couple of weeks, both Google and Microsoft have added new features that try to spare you that last step. Now when you search at Google.com or Bing.com, you don’t just get a list of Web pages that match your search. Off to the right, where the search results page used to be empty, you now see actual information about the subject of your search, carefully packed into a new, concise, attractive panel.

Full article

The New York Public Library’s $300 million plan to sell its Mid-Manhattan branch and the Science, Industry and Business Library and consolidate them in a renovated main building on Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street continues to generate criticism. Opponents, hundreds of scholars and others who have signed a petition to block the plan, have said it would undermine its mission as a research center because millions of books would be moved to a storage facility in Princeton, N.J. But library officials say the move is vital to saving the two branches, would have little effect on research and would bring in more users. Should the library go forward with the plan?

Read the discussion

Are Libraries Doomed?

"Our librarians will find a way to make life better for us. Their working in a library building as we know such is doubtful. There won’t be a library for us to go to. We’ll be ordering e-books and other media from them by computer. They’ll send them to us by computer. Will do everything by computer. Probably we’ll never see a librarian face to face. In fact, the process may be automated. I’m optimistic. I’m all for progress. But I’m glad I won’t see this progress. I treasure my memories of my good times in public libaries big and small, near and far. Good times beyond count."