Librarians Feel Sticker Shock as Price for Random House Ebooks Rises as Much as 300 Percent. (This story has been updated to clarify the meaning of “simultaneity” and include remarks from the North Texas Library Partners.)
New prices for Random House’s ebooks took effect on Thursday, and as the details emerged a number of librarians across the country expressed dismay at the doubling and tripling in prices they are seeing. E-Book Action: Inform and Inspire Your Community. E-Book Media and Communications Toolkit. Since January 2012, the ALA Digital Content & Libraries Working Group has focused on e-book library lending – particularly around major publishers that refuse to offer their titles through our nation’s libraries, have dramatically raised prices, or have introduced new restrictions.
And we have made some progress. As of April 2013, all of the “Big Six” publishers are now engaged in library e-lending pilots or provide some/all of their titles for purchase by libraries. (See FAQ for details.) While there has been some movement, it is not enough. Librarians and our allies must speak out forcefully in communities across the country. Transforming Libraries. Supporting the “Transformation” of libraries is a priority of the Association’s 2015 Strategic Plan, and the rapid shift from print to digital content is one of the more dramatic developments now transforming libraries of all types.
New digital forms of information offer rich and extraordinary opportunities for libraries to expand community access to information and to revolutionize in positive ways the relationship between libraries and users. At the same time, these new forms of digital content pose new challenges. As libraries struggle to meet the challenges of providing digital content in an environment characterized by significant uncertainty and changing on a daily basis, there is a need for an Association-wide group of experts, broadly representative of the many constituencies within the library community, that can proactively address these digital content opportunities and issues at the highest level and from both a policy and practical perspective.
Scope Toolkit More Resources. Connect.ala.org/files/80755/EbookBusinessModelsPublicLibs.pdf. The magazine of the American Library Association. An Open Letter to America’s Publishers. Open Letter to America's Publishers. "The following open letter was released by ALA President Maureen Sullivan regarding the refusal of Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, and Penguin to provide access to their ebooks in USlibraries: It’s a rare thing in a free market when a customer is refused the ability to buy a company’s product and is told its money is “no good here.”
Surprisingly, after centuries of enthusiastically supporting publishers’ products, libraries find themselves in just that position with purchasing ebooks from three of the largest publishers in the world. Digital Content Working Group. Librarian Cites 'Concerning' Trends in Digital Collection Development.
The acquisition and management of digital content is becoming increasingly critical.
And given their background in collection development, librarians are uniquely suited to assume this task. But there are pitfalls, according to Michelle Luhtala, the department chair of the New Canaan (CT) High School Library. 6 concerning trends in digital collection development. I recently joined an American Association of School Librarians (AASL) working group that will develop guidelines to help librarians make decisions about digital content acquisitions.
Members were asked to introduce themselves, and to share their experience with eContent. What follows is an excerpt of what I wrote. I share it here, because it includes a few concerns I've been meaning to write about in this blog, so here goes: 10,000 Smashwords E-books Acquired by Douglas County Libraries. The Douglas County Libraries in Colorado, an innovator in developing its own e-book lending platform, announced last week that they will nearly double the number of e-books available to patrons via a roughly $40,0000 deal to acquire 10,000 e-book titles from independent and self-publishing service provider Smashwords.
In all, the deal brings the total of e-books owned by DCL to 21,000, but perhaps most importantly, might the agreement point the way toward a smoother e-book future for libraries and publishers? “The deal was culminated through the legal equivalent of a sketch on a cocktail napkin, not a 330 page contract with multiple addenda,” blogged PW contributing editor Peter Brantley, who also reported that additional large library consortia, such as California’s Califa, are expected to follow DCL’s suit. Smashwords — Ebooks from independent authors and publishers. A Call for Fair Ebook Pricing: Site-based pricing has small schools overcharged. Over the past few months, the American Library Association (ALA) and its president, Maureen Sullivan, have taken a hard stance with major publishers on the issue of ebooks in libraries.
ALA’s attention has been directed at the so-called “big six,” some of whom still refuse to sell ebooks to libraries. While there isn’t much call for a hardline approach with small, independent publishers of K–12 ebooks, there’s one issue I’d like to address. Author Christopher Harris has created a PDF detailing the digital content pricing challenges faced by small, rural schools like the districts he serves in the Genesee Valley Educational Partnership in Western New York. Under the building- or site-based pricing terms that many K–12 publishers use, the small, rural school districts that I serve are being overcharged for digital content.
We aren’t the only ones who are paying more than our fair share. Home: The Big Picture - MU 5541. GVEP Library Service receives national honor.