Librarian hat off; fan hat on! The Friday of NYCC is the first official day of the “con,” which means a lot more people and a lot more panels. Today I indulged in more of the fan aspect of NYCC, but one presentation—a history of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund—caught the librarian eye. Intellectual … Continue reading New York Comic-Con Day 2: A Fight for Comic Book Rights
At last year’s NYCC, New Jersey City University Library’s Head of Acquisitions and (founder of the ALA Dance Party) J. P. Porcaro gathered every single librarian in the ALA booth for the Epic Librarian Photo Shoot. The tradition continued this year, and as you can see from the photo below, we crammed every possible librarian into … Continue reading The Show Floor (and more) at NY Comic-Con
“Does the publishing community understand why librarians would balk at increases on the order of 100% or 200%?” wonders Carrie Russell of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP) over at the District Dispatch blog of the Association’s Washington Office. That’s a good question—one that needs a response steeped in indisputable data. Fortunately, Russell explains, … Continue reading Ebook Economics 101
Following yesterday’s report from Maureen Sullivan on the recent ALA visit to New York City to talk with publishers, here are updated figures from Douglas County (Colorado) Libraries on ebook availability and pricing. As Sullivan noted, the mission of the ALA delegation is to address “the ebook concerns that have come to us from ALA … Continue reading DCL Ebook Report for Sept. 2012
Last week, I led an ALA delegation to New York City to meet with publishers to discuss the many concerns of the library community about ebook publishing. Uppermost in our minds were the ebook concerns that have come to us from ALA members across the country—especially about pricing and availability (or the lack thereof) and … Continue reading Focus on the Future
The tweets were flying as ALA President Maureen Sullivan spoke earlier today at a meeting of the Association of American Publishers (AAP). Digital Book World (DBW) provided live coverage of Sullivan’s talk, the text of which was posted on this blog earlier today. Sullivan continued to focus on the potential strength of a strong library/publishing … Continue reading ALA Responds to AAP Challenges on Ebooks . . . Before They Are Even Issued
The following is a summary of remarks ALA President Maureen Sullivan is delivering today at the Association of American Publishers Fall Meeting in New York City: We must build on the long-standing, successful partnership between publishers and libraries. Through our common goal of bringing authors and readers together, publishers and libraries have worked with each … Continue reading Libraries and Publishers Strengthening the E-Reading Ecosystem
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 US libraries: 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 … Continue reading An Open Letter to America’s Publishers
The Latino community, for example, “is constantly shifting and changing,” said Denice Adkins of Reforma, but the unifying group for advocacy within the Latino community of librarians is the association, she said. Because a variety of cultures make up the community, Adkins emphasized that Latino librarians need to “have a voice in librarianship.” Jerome Offord … Continue reading Ethnic Caucus Presidents Discuss Advocacy at JCLC
Responding in no uncertain terms to reports that the Hachette Book Group will hike the price of backlist ebooks to the library market by 104% starting October 1, ALA President Maureen Sullivan issued the following statement this morning: “When Hachette announced it was stepping back into the library ebook market this past May with pilots that … Continue reading This Just In: ALA Decries Hachette’s 104% Library Ebook Price Increase (Corrected)
Hachette will increase backlist ebook prices by an average of 220% starting next month, according to an email from OverDrive released by Gary Price at InfoDocket (and subsequently reported here). I cannot help but ask the same question of Hachette that I asked of Random House when it increased prices over 300% this past spring: … Continue reading Has Hachette Forgotten How to Publish?
In the past months, the prices of ebooks for libraries—and in particular, some large price increases—have received considerable attention. But these discussions typically occur in the abstract. I decided that a focus on actual prices would greatly illuminate the challenges that libraries face. Thus, Douglas County (Colo.) Libraries compiled a new monthly price comparison report … Continue reading The Visible Hand of the Market?
