March 2011

Marketplace, a radio show, from American Public Media is looking for people that read self-published e-books.

See: http://bit.ly/eW72FK

As Amazon adds new job listings for Google Android developers, speculation increases whether the company is working on an Android-based color Kindle?

Full article

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals has a press release out noting that the legal duty for local authorities to maintain libraries in the United Kingdom may be under threat. This was brought about by a deregulatory push by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government’s Department of Communities and Local Governments to seek comment on the over one thousand mandates by central government upon local authorities in the UK. CILIP President Brian Hall is urging members of that organization to contribute their views to the review being undertaken by the department.

The Ohio Library Council has a breakdown posted concerning Ohio Governor John Kasich’s 2012-2013 biennium budget. Public libraries are looking at a 5% cut in state-level funding. Compared to libraries, WJW in Cleveland reports townships and municipalities were hit in the budget with a 25% cut in Local Government Fund dollars in 2012 and a 50% cut of such funds in 2013. Columbus-based Ohio News Network also reports on the budget that other proposals include capping tuition, creating three-year bachelor’s degree programs, and increasing funding for K-12 education.

The Guardian reports that Yahoo! is rumored to be preparing to sell Delicious to StumbleUpon. From the story:

At the same time of the December announcement the handful of engineers who were developing the Delicious system are understood to have either been sacked or redeployed inside Yahoo, leaving only support staff.

Services like Pinboard and Opera Link exist as potential replacements among other offerings online.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: For the second consecutive public meeting, Salt Lake City Public Library Director Beth Elder was assailed by employees, who argued her methods are tyrannical, managers are “miserable” and that morale is plummeting.

“That might be the most poisonous thing we’re seeing,” 15-year associate librarian Mike Nordenstrom told a rapt Library Board on Thursday in a Main Library conference room that echoed with applause and hoots after each successive speaker.

“Why doesn’t the board investigate reports of intimidation and retaliation?” asked Candy Markle, a library assistant at the Sprague branch. “Given the lack of employee confidence in Ms. Elder, as well as the current public-relations crisis over her decisions, how is the board going to successfully sell the public on a tax increase this year for the new branches? Has she been a successful leader? Has the reputation of the library improved under her supervision?”

Board members sat mostly silent during the onslaught, while Elder fidgeted in her chair. Multiple speakers also rattled off a list of longtime employees who recently retired or resigned from the public resource hub that won the 2006 Library of the Year award.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: For the second consecutive public meeting, Salt Lake City Public Library Director Beth Elder was assailed by employees, who argued her methods are tyrannical, managers are “miserable” and that morale is plummeting.

“That might be the most poisonous thing we’re seeing,” 15-year associate librarian Mike Nordenstrom told a rapt Library Board on Thursday in a Main Library conference room that echoed with applause and hoots after each successive speaker.

“Why doesn’t the board investigate reports of intimidation and retaliation?” asked Candy Markle, a library assistant at the Sprague branch. “Given the lack of employee confidence in Ms. Elder, as well as the current public-relations crisis over her decisions, how is the board going to successfully sell the public on a tax increase this year for the new branches? Has she been a successful leader? Has the reputation of the library improved under her supervision?”

Board members sat mostly silent during the onslaught, while Elder fidgeted in her chair. Multiple speakers also rattled off a list of longtime employees who recently retired or resigned from the public resource hub that won the 2006 Library of the Year award.

To further add to the low morale at SLC a patron recently committed suicide from one of the library’s interior bridges. This was the third such incident since the new library’s construction.

How much do you think a good story is worth? I don’t mean a book necessarily since books can be collectible and that’s not what I am getting at here, but how much do you think a novel length story is worth?

When deciding this you might compare the value of the read vs. other entertainments such as the cost of a movie rental? The price of a video game? The cost of a newspaper or magazine? The drop in fee for a local gym or that knitting class at the community center? For me the value varies wildly depending on how much I enjoy (or expect to enjoy) the book.

With that in mind I have been thinking about the current “race to the bottom” debate in e-publishing that has been raging on the blogosphere. For those of you who are unaware it essentially boils down (in an inelegant way) to publishers claiming that self published authors are going to ruin publishing by offering eBooks at rock bottom prices; while the self-published authors are claiming that large publishing houses are bloated profiteers.

Full blog post.

Publisher’s Weekly has a map of the store locations of the three largest booksellers.

I just love this post from Gary Price’s new site, infodocket.com:
From The Guardian Archive: 54 Years Ago Sales of Microfilm Equipment Showing a “Steady Rise in Sales”

Bank managers, librarians, archivists, and those in charge of filing are realising more and more the value of reducing the information contained in four drawers of a filing cabinet to the size of a packet of cigarettes. It is now possible to buy machines which can photograph cheques at the rate of 350 a minute, or letters at 150 a minute, and reduce the size of the original at the same time by one-fortieth.

All sorts of good stuff at Price’s new sites, http://INFOdocket.com and http://FullTextReports.com

ALA Past President and Publisher, The U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*D, the ‘how I run my library good’ SM letter
Maurice J. Freedman writes:
Interestingly, the New York Times article (March 15, 2011) on the boycott by libraries of Harper-Collins e-books omitted two fundamental points:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/15/business/media/15libraries.html?_r=1&hp

1. The great profits publishers make by selling e-books.

With e-books, the publishers have eliminated paper, printing, binding, distribution and returns by publishing books electronically–thus dramatically reducing their publication costs. Publishing everything in e-book format was their dream because of the reduced costs to the publisher. This view was expressed by Jack Romanos, then head of Simon & Schuster, at an e-books conference in Washington about 10 years ago. Not having to share profits with Baker & Taylor, etc. and the few remaining bookstores make e-books a great product and a money-maker. I don’t know the per cent Overdrive and other e-book firms pay for the right to distribute e-books, but–intuitively, at least–it would net far more money for the publisher given the whole B&T-like apparatus required to fulfill orders for physical books, offices for selectors & buyers and warehousing, plus selling and physically distributing the books. to libraries or its other customers..

2. The first-sale doctrine and what it guarantees for libraries

Clearly Harper-Collins (a Rupert Murdock-owned subsidiary of his News Corporation) wants not only to pocket all of these savings, but take away the benefits of the first-sale doctrine (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-sale_doctrine) U.S. libraries have always enjoyed via the device of a license. Specifically the first-sale doctrine means that if a library buys a book, it is free to circulate it as often as it chooses without any per usage charge, royalty, or externally imposed limitation. Harper-Collins wants to limit library e-books to 26 circulations–thus abridging the right of the first-sale doctrine. It knows it is not illegal because libraries aren’t “purchasing” the e-book, they’re acquiring a limited use license to circulate it. However Harper-Collins is the only publisher of which we are aware that wants to limit the libraries’ use, i.e. 26 circs.

The librarie

s can choose to view the license as not affecting the right of first purchase and boycott those vendors–beginning with Harper-Collins–that set limits on circulations via the license device.

This is why I strongly advocate and support the Harper-Collins boycott. Circumventing the 1st-sale doctrine via the license agreement does not mean that libraries have to accept the license provisions. There is nothing to stop libraries applying the spirit of the 1st sale doctrine in their e-book procurements.

Simply, libraries should only enter into agreements for e-book licenses which provide unlimited circulations.

Forgive the cliché, but Harper-Collins is the proverbial camel getting its nose in the tent. If libraries accede to license-limiting circulation; it is not too great a leap to think–once the precedent is established—that other e-book publishers will follow.

In the article’s concluding paragraph, I was disappointed with the librarian who said that ultimately some accommodation would have to be made between e-book publishers and libraries.

There is no middle ground on this issue. E.g. There can be no middle ground or compromise between the conflicting positions that the Earth was created in 7 days and is 6,000 years old according to creationists (http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2007/05/30/how-old-is-earth); and the position of modern science that asserts that the Earth is over 4 billion years old (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dalrymple/scientific_age_earth.html). The contentions are mutually exclusive. There is no splitting the difference or accommodation which can be made regarding these polar opposite positions. Which is how I see the Harper-Collins licenses. There is no compromise between unlimited and limited.

Librarians must stand rock solid against any proposition that would imperil the libraries’ unlimited circulation of e-books.

The principle that has always applied to printed book purchases must be applied to e-books. There is no reason we can’t subject e-book licenses to that condition.

I urge all librarians to not enter into licenses with Harper-Collins or any other publisher that wants to limit the number of library circulations.

Maurice J. Freedman, 16 March 2011

ALA Past President

Publisher, The U*N*A*B*A*S*H*E*DTM, the ‘how I run my library good’ SM letter