Central to the purpose of ALA’s Digital Content and Libraries Working Group (DCWG) is communication. DCWG members and staff, along with ALA leadership, engage in a wide variety of outreach activities, whether presenting at conferences or meetings, representing ALA in forums, participating in workshops, or publishing articles and reports.
Since the 2013 Midwinter Meeting, ALA has been represented at several conferences. In February, Jamie LaRue (DCWG member) and Larra Clark (ALA staff) were panelists at the Knight Foundation Libraries Conference in Miami. Michael Dowling (ALA staff) was a panelist at the “International Perspectives on Ebooks in Libraries” conference in London, which was organized by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions.
In March, Rod Gauvin (DCWG member) provided an update on DCWG activities at the Michigan Library Association’s “Transition in Collections: Print to Digital” conferencein East Lansing. At the Public Library Association’s Virtual Spring Symposium, Larra Clark talked about our ebook media and communications toolkit. Also in March, Sari Feldman (DCWG cochair) and Vailey Oehlke (DCWG member) were panelists at the Public Library Directors Symposium in San Francisco. And Jamie LaRue appeared in Valdez, Alaska, to talk about the role of libraries in the midst of a publishing revolution at the Alaska Library Association’s annual conference.
In addition to conferences, we participated in a couple of working meetings. In February, I participated in an advisory group webinar for the OCLC/Big Shift initiative. Maureen Sullivan (ALA president) presented at the ReadersFirst general membership webinar in March, with Vailey Oehlke, Alan S. Inouye, and Carrie Russell (ALA staff) participating.
Upcoming activities
April is a busy month. Early on, Maureen Sullivan and Carrie Russell will travel to Harvard University to participate in a workshop on library licensing organized by the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. The following week, Maureen Sullivan will lead an ALA delegation to New York to meet with publishers and others in the publishing ecosystem; the delegation includes Barb Stripling (ALA President-elect), Robert Wolven (DCWG cochair), Keith Michael Fiels (ALA executive director), Alan S. Inouye, and Marijke Visser (ALA staff). During the subsequent week, Maureen Sullivan and Alan S. Inouye will represent ALA at the launch meetings of the Digital Public Library of America, to be held at the Boston Public Library. On April 18, Jamie LaRue will be a featured panelist on American Libraries Live, speaking on the present and future directions of ebooks and libraries. Jamie also will speak at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference in Fort Worth (PDF file). And the peripatetic Mr. LaRue will be a speaker at the Imagine, Create, Innovate workshopin Rochester, New York, as well as at the Arizona State Library in Phoenix and in a workshop on the library as publisher in Boulder, Colorado. At the end of April, Larra Clark will be a panelist at the annual conference of the Independent Book Publishers Association in Chicago.
In May, we will make another international foray as Maureen Sullivan presents “Ebooks in Libraries: A Global Question of Survival? An American Perspective” at the Swedish Library Association conference (PDf file) in Orebro. Also, Maureen and I will wave the ALA/DCWG flag at Book Expo America in New York, at which Maureen will serve on a panel hosted by the Association of Authors’ Representatives. Jamie LaRue will be a featured speaker at the Esummit hosted by the New Jersey Library Association in Eatontown.
We hope to see many of you at National Library Legislative Day, May 7–8 in Washington, D.C. Ebooks and digital content will be a featured topic and ALA leadership and DCWG members will be in force to discuss and help carry the library ebook message to the Hill.
For some reason, May will be a big month for published contributions by DCWG. Foremost, ALA will be releasing a new (our third) American Libraries digital supplement on digital content. Several pieces are authored by leading thinkers in the community such as Clifford Lynch (DCWG member) and Peter Brantley. We have two articles expected for publication elsewhere—one by Chanitra Bishop (DCWG member) and Marijke Visser in Young Adult Library Services, and the other by Maureen Sullivan about ebook lending in the Maine Policy Review. We are also expecting an article about ebooks and libraries to be published in Governing magazine in May.
But there are other publications pending in months other than May. In mid-April, the 2013 State of America’s Libraries report will be released, which includes an article about ebooks. The 2013 Bowker Annual (Library and Book Trade Almanac), which is slated for a June release, is scheduled to include an article by Carrie Russell, Sari Feldman, and Robert Wolven.
Of course, we have a number of activities planned for the 2013 ALA Annual Conference in Chicago, including a DCWG program on June 29 at 1 p.m., moderated by Sari Feldman and Robert Wolven, and our business meeting that evening. We already have commitments for the summer and fall at Digipalooza in Cleveland (August), the Illinois Library Association Annual Conference (October), and the Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference (November).
As always, please check the American Libraries E-Content blog to keep up on the latest developments. ALA’s Association for Library Service for Children (ALSC) also has a digital content blog, and ALA has a presenceon Digital Book World.
ALAN S. INOUYE is program manager of the ALA Digital Content and Libraries Initiative and director of the Office for Information Technology Policy at ALA’s Washington Office.