Digital Content Working Group Archives | American Libraries Magazine

ALA Statement on New Macmillan Library Lending Model

July 25, 2019

The American Library Association (ALA) denounces the new library ebook lending model announced today by Macmillan Publishers. Under the new model, a library may purchase one copy upon release of a new title in ebook format, after which the publisher will impose an eight-week embargo on additional copies of that title sold to libraries. “Macmillan … Continue reading ALA Statement on New Macmillan Library Lending Model →

From left: Alan S. Inouye, director of ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP); ALA President Julie B. Todaro; Digital Content Working Group Cochair Erika Linke; Carrie Russell, Director of OITP’s Program on Public Access to Information; Digital Content Working Group Cochair Carolyn Anthony; and ALA President-Elect Jim Neal.

Finding Common Ground in New York

By Alan S. Inouye | February 28, 2017

Todaro was joined by ALA President-Elect Jim Neal; Carolyn Anthony and Erika Linke, cochairs of ALA’s Digital Content Working Group; and Carrie Russell and Alan S. Inouye of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy. They met with leaders at Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, the Book Industry Study Group, Metropolitan New York Library Council, … Continue reading Finding Common Ground in New York →

Speakers at the Digital Content Working Group panel, from left: Trevor Owens, senior program officer for the national digital platform at the Institute of Museum and Library Services; DCWG cochairs Erika Linke and Carolyn Anthony; Michael Blackwell, director of the St. Mary’s County (Md.) Libraries; and Todd Carpenter, executive director of National Information Standards Organization.

Digital Content Working Group at Annual Conference

By Erika Linke | July 22, 2016

Michael Blackwell, director of the St. Mary’s County (Md.) Libraries, urged the library community to demand simplicity from content providers and platform developers by putting the user at the heart of the experience and by providing genuine integration of e-content. The e-content field is dynamic, and just as some standards and practices are implemented, new … Continue reading Digital Content Working Group at Annual Conference →

Making Progress with Digital Content

By Toby Greenwalt and Richard Kong | April 14, 2016

Carolyn Anthony, director of Skokie (Ill.) Public Library and cochair of American Library Association’s Digital Content Working Group (DCWG), kicked things off. She shared insights gained during meetings with major publishers in December 2015. For instance, publishers generally continue to show greater willingness to provide better pricing and more flexible licensing terms. Penguin Random House … Continue reading Making Progress with Digital Content →

Internet Policy Task Force Notes Library Copyright Concerns

By Carrie Russell | February 5, 2016

The task force consists of Commerce representatives from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Patent and Trademark Office, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the International Trade Administration. Formed in 2010 to “conduct a comprehensive review of the nexus between privacy policy, copyright, global free flow of information, cybersecurity, and innovation in … Continue reading Internet Policy Task Force Notes Library Copyright Concerns →

DCWG cochair Carolyn Anthony introduces the panel (from left, DCWG cochair Erika Linke; Mark Kuyper, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG); Andrew Albanese, senior writer and features editor for Publishers Weekly (PW); and Kelvin Watson, chief innovation and technology officer, Queens (N.Y.) Library).

The Ebook Glass Is Half Full

By Robert C. Maier | January 29, 2016

The panel was hosted by DCWG cochairs Erika Linke, associate dean of Carnegie Mellon University Libraries, and Carolyn Anthony, director of the Skokie (Ill.) Public Library. The panelists were Mark Kuyper, executive director of the Book Industry Study Group (BISG); Andrew Albanese, senior writer and features editor for Publishers Weekly (PW); and Kelvin Watson, chief … Continue reading The Ebook Glass Is Half Full →

Penguin Random House Ebooks Now Licensed for Perpetual Access

By Robert C. Maier | January 20, 2016

As in the past, the license is for one circulation at a time per copy. Previously, Penguin had imposed a one-year limit on library licenses, requiring the library to pay again for the title. Prior to the merger of Penguin and Random House in July 2013, the two publishers had entirely different terms for library … Continue reading Penguin Random House Ebooks Now Licensed for Perpetual Access →

What’s in Store for Ebooks?

By Alan S. Inouye | January 4, 2016

What accounts for the sudden and rapid growth? One answer: the introduction of Amazon’s Kindle in 2007. In response to the disruption that ensued—specifically for library ebook sales and lending—ALA established the a working group on libraries and digital issues (now known as the Digital Content Working Group, or DCWG) to help navigate the Association … Continue reading What’s in Store for Ebooks? →

ALA leaders meet with representatives from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), from left: ALA President Sari Feldman; Lisa Rosenblum, chief librarian, Brooklyn Public Library; Milan Hughston, chief of library and museum archives at The Museum of Modern Art; James G. Neal, university librarian emeritus at Columbia University; Kelvin Watson, chief innovation and technology officer, Queens Library; and Nate Hill, executive director, METRO.

ALA, Publishers Talk Ebook Lending Terms for Libraries

By Alan S. Inouye | December 7, 2015

ALA highlighted the valuable role of libraries in the publishing and reading ecosystems and thus why more flexible and favorable terms for library ebook lending are in everyone’s best interest. This visit represents ALA’s ninth such delegation effort over the last several years. Libraries have a prominent role in the discovery of books and authors, … Continue reading ALA, Publishers Talk Ebook Lending Terms for Libraries →

Screenshot from Queens Library's Virtual Library.

Discovery and Delivery: Keep Calm and Make It Real

By Larra Clark | December 7, 2015

Watson joined Queens three years ago as chief innovation and technology officer under his motto of “keep calm and make it real.” Learning about the progress he and his team have made over that time was exhilarating. Taking lessons from his time at Ingram, Borders, and the US Department of Agriculture, Watson focused on breaking … Continue reading Discovery and Delivery: Keep Calm and Make It Real →

ALA leaders gathered in New York to meet with several publishers. Back row, from left: ALA Past President Courtney Young; Erika Linke, DCWG cochair and Associate Dean and Director of Research and Academic Services at Carnegie Mellon University Libraries; DCWG cochair and director of Skokie (Ill.) Public Library Carolyn Anthony; and ALA Executive Director Keith Michael Fiels. Front row, from left: Julie Todaro, dean of library services at Austin (Tex.) Community College and 2016-2017 ALA President; OITP Director Alan Inouye; ALA President Sari Feldman; and OITP Program Director Carrie Russell.

ALA Responds to Penguin Random House Ebook Licensing Announcement

By Alan S. Inouye | December 3, 2015

The new structure will phase out the Penguin model of one-year lending and reduce the price for some previous Random House titles with a $65 cap on all Penguin Random House e-titles starting January 1, 2016. “Libraries will be pleased that the combined Penguin Random House license will ensure perpetual access to e-titles, and all will … Continue reading ALA Responds to Penguin Random House Ebook Licensing Announcement →

DCL Ebook Report, August 2015

By Robert C. Maier | August 13, 2015

How does that happen if publishers fix the price libraries pay? It’s time for transparency on library ebook pricing from both publishers and distributors. This blog has maintained a chart comparing the price a library pays OverDrive to the consumer ebook price from Amazon as a ratio. For example, in February libraries paid six times … Continue reading DCL Ebook Report, August 2015 →

Latest Library Links

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Genevieve Trainor writes: “The Guinness World Record holder for Most Prolific Book Thief is Ottumwa (Iowa’s) Stephen Blumberg. The 23,600 volumes he accumulated between the 1970s and his arrest in March of 1990 were all stashed in his 17-room home. Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, got involved with Blumberg as part of the FBI’s efforts to return the stolen manuscripts and rare books to their museums and libraries. Referred to as the Omaha Project, the information science proving ground involved four weeks, 44 catalogers and reference librarians and 600 volunteer hours to determine who might be the rightful owners.”

Little Village (Dubuque, Iowa), Dec. 4
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Casey Newton writes: “At the moment, no one knows for sure whether the large language models that are now under development will achieve superintelligence and transform the world. And in that uncertainty, two primary camps of criticism have emerged. The first camp, which I associate with the external critics, holds that artificial intelligence (AI) is fake and sucks. The second camp, which I associate more with the internal critics, believes that AI is real and dangerous. Today I want to lay out why I believe AI is real and dangerous.”

Platformer, Dec. 5
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Latia Ward writes: “One way to keep current with what students think of the library and its services is through Student Library Advisory Committee meetings. These meetings are a way to gather feedback and reinforce the library as a welcoming place. How do librarians create a welcoming environment within Student Library Advisory Committee meetings? Librarians create a welcoming environment through community, purpose, and dedicated space.” Also see part 1 of this blog post.

RIPS Law Librarian Blog, Nov. 13, Dec. 5
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Eleanor Hecks writes: “Few things are as frustrating to a user as when a site won’t respond. Unfortunately, it’s also an all-too-common scenario. Graceful degradation is a design approach that ensures the basics of a website will still function even if specific individual parts of it stop working. The approach removes single points of failure: just because one thing stops working doesn’t mean the system as a whole fails. A site following this principle fails in pieces instead of all at once, so the most important features remain available when some components encounter an error.”

Smashing Magazine, Dec. 6
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Camruinn Morgan-Rumsey and Lexi Lepof write: “On December 3, Knox County (Tenn.) schools received a list from the district of books to be removed from school libraries under Tennessee’s Age-Appropriate Materials Act. Knox County’s board of education voted in July, passing a policy to remove ‘explicit’ books from everyday student access in response to the new law. Some of the books on the list of nearly 50 titles might surprise parents. Among those to be removed are Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.”

WVLT-TV (Knoxville, Tenn.), Dec. 4
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Joe Foley writes: “Copyright rules vary from country to country and have changed over time. In the US, works created between 1929 and 1963 that gave notice and renewed copyright have 95 years from their first publication date. That means that on January 1, 2025, a host of works from 1929 will enter the public domain. This means that copyright will expire on Buck Rogers, Captain Easy, Horace Horsecollar, Tintin, Hal Foster’s first Tarzan comic strips and, yes, Popeye.” Other notable works entering public domain in the United States include the Marx Brothers’ first film, The Cocoanuts, contralto Marian Anderson’s first record, and Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

Creative Bloq, Dec. 7; Everybody’s Libraries, Dec. 3, Dec. 7; Public Domain Review, Dec. 10
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Brittany Adams writes: “The digital landscape of libraries is expanding rapidly, with an increasing shift towards electronic resources and online services. As members of the library community, we’re witnessing a transformative era where physical collections are complemented—and sometimes replaced—by digital ones. This transition offers new opportunities for enhancing accessibility and engagement, but it also presents challenges, especially for young patrons and their families. It is essential to equip children and their caregivers with the tools and knowledge they need to navigate this evolving space confidently.”

ALSC Blog, Dec. 9

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