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Nancy PearlCheck It Out with Nancy Pearl: December 2011 - ALA and Digital Downloads
Q: As we head toward the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Dallas, we’ve been thinking a lot about the state of the library profession. We regularly read stories in the press about the future of libraries and their relevance, about the impact of e-books and technological developments, as well as funding struggles and other difficulties. You teach in a library school—can you tell us a little about your students? What draws people to the profession, and despite the problems facing libraries, how do the students you encounter see the future of libraries, as well as their careers?
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Copyright
Use It, or Lose It
When it comes to copyright, the discussion today invariably focuses on piracy. For today’s large copyright-based industries, almost any unauthorized use of their content is considered stealing. But the real question may be what such a restrictive reading of copyright steals from the public. In Reclaiming Fair Use: How to Put Balance Back in Copyright (Univ. of Chicago, 2011) authors Patricia Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi look at the impact of today’s copyright policies on creativity and argue that fair use—that long-embedded if often misunderstood core principle of copyright—can help creators cut through the static of today’s confusing, contentious copyright environment.
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Shows & Events
Off the Shelf
More than 10,000 librarians, publishers, authors, and vendors will gather in Dallas, January 20–24, for the 2012 American Library Association Midwinter meeting. Among the meeting’s highlights: the announcement of the ALA’s Youth Media Awards, including the coveted Newbery and Caldecott medals; a bustling exhibit floor; and a strong author presence.
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Copyright
Monograph Wars
Back in 2000, at a meeting at netLibrary’s headquarters in Boulder, CO, then-CEO Nancy Talmey told a group of assembled university press publishers that one “medium-sized” university press had recently pocketed two sizable checks for its previous months’ e-book usage with netLibrary. One check exceeded $100,000. Could academic monographs really be so profitable? If it seemed too good to be true, it was. Within a few years, netLibrary was reduced from a campus in Colorado, to a few cubicles at OCLC.
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Copyright
In Fight with Amazon, Libraries Caught in the Crossfire
When Penguin announced last week that it was disabling library e-book lending on the Kindle and pulling its latest e-book titles from all library lending platforms, libraries and readers took the hit, but to some observers they were collateral damage in a fight between publishers and Amazon about the control of publishers’ titles.
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Soapbox
An Experiment
When Amazon began offering one free (ostensibly “borrowed”) e-book per month to members of its new Prime program, I was intrigued. I don’t know if a free digital book a month from Amazon is a good thing or a less-than-good thing, or whether the terms are good, bad, or indifferent. What I do know is that refusing to participate in Amazon Prime denies publishers, authors, and agents one thing they need most: data.
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Content / e-books
Penguin Restores 'Older' Titles to OverDrive
Late Wednesday morning, Penguin issued a statement in which it said that it is, at least temporaily, making its "older titles" available once again through OverDrive for distribution to libraries, though new titles will still not be available. The action came after talks between Amazon and Penguin in which Amazon said it had not been consulted by OverDrive about the terms of Penguin's agreement with OverDrive.
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Content / e-books
No Change, But Random House Says It Is “Actively Reviewing” Library E-book Policy
After Penguin announced this week that it was pulling its frontlist e-book titles from libraries and disabling all Kindle library lends, Random House remains the only “Big Six” publisher to embrace library sales of e-book editions.
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Content / e-books
Citing "Security Concerns" Penguin Pulls New Titles from OverDrive
Penguin officials have confirmed that its latest titles will not be available for library lending in e-book editions via OverDrive.
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Comics
X-Men Writer Chris Claremont Donates Archive to Columbia University
Renowned comics writer and novelist Chris Claremont, best known for his many years writing Marvel’s X-Men and Uncanny X-Men series, has reached an agreement to donate his archives to Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
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Nancy Pearl
Check It Out with Nancy Pearl: November 2011 - Book Awards
Last month’s column on the state of traditional book reviews and on “outsider” and self-published books drew some great reactions, a couple we thought we’d share. Plus Nancy talks book awards.
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Publisher News
ProQuest Unveils New Organization, Cuts Some Management Positions
ProQuest this week announced that it has reorganized into six business units, and named a new executive team. In addition, sources tell PW that 40 jobs have been eliminated across the company, which employs some 1,800 people.
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People
AAUP Executive Director Peter Givler to Retire
Peter Givler, longtime executive director of the Association of American University Presses has announced plans to retire—but with a June, 2013 date, it’s a little too early for strolls down memory lane.
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Conferences
Print or Digital? ebrary Set to Discuss Student Survey Results on Friday
E-book vendor ebrary announced this week that it will discuss the initial results of its 2011 Global Student E-book Survey on Friday November 4, at the Charleston Conference’s “Lively Lunch” session, and simultaneously online via a free webinar.
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Marketing
Survey Says Library Users Are Your Best Customers
This month Library Journal released the first issue of a quarterly publication called Patron Profiles. Based on surveys and data collected from library users across the country, the first issue—on libraries and e-book usage—indicates that libraries are a powerful economic engine for the book business.
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Copyright
U.S. Copyright Office Outlines "Priorities and Special Projects"
Orphan works, preservation for libraries, mass digitization, and fighting digital piracy are among the priorities set by the Register of Copyrights Maria A. Pallante this week in a paper outlining the U.S. Copyright Office's "priorities and special projects" for the next two years.
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Content / e-books
University of California Press in E-Book Partnership with Oxford
The University of California Press is partnering with Oxford University Press to launch California Scholarship Online/CALSO on OUP’s recently-launched University Press Scholarship Online (UPSO) platform.
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Nancy Pearl
Check It Out: with Nancy Pearl: Book Reviewing and More
The demise of the Washington Post Book World and other traditional stand-alone print book reviews, as well as the loss of space devoted to reviewing books in most American newspapers, indicates a sea change in the way readers will find books to read.
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Interviews
Going Public: PW Talks with Jeff Jarvis
Jeff Jarvis is not a man to mince words. And to the critics and curmudgeons resisting the new networked world at our doorstep, the message in his latest book, Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, is clear: get with it.
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Cory Doctorow
With a Little Help: Now at Your Library
It's been nine months since the launch of With a Little Help, and, as with most trade books, the action has slowed down. All in all, the book has earned me $2,231.23 over the summer and cost me $167.88 in costs.
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