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Newport Beach Library: Bookless?
Apr 4th
The Time for Libraries is NOW
Mar 28th
The time for Libraries is NOW
View more presentations from Ned Potter
The eBook User’s Bill of Rights #ebookrights #hcod
Feb 28th
The eBook User’s Bill of Rights is a statement of the basic freedoms that should be granted to all eBook users. It was initiated by Sarah Houghton-Jan and Andy Woodworth. I heartily endorse and support this effort, and hope you’ll help spread the word far and wide and well beyond library land.
The eBook User’s Bill of Rights
Every eBook user should have the following rights:
- the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
- the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
- the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
- the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks
I believe in the free market of information and ideas.
I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.
Digital Rights Management (DRM), like a tariff, acts as a mechanism to inhibit this free exchange of ideas, literature, and information. Likewise, the current licensing arrangements mean that readers never possess ultimate control over their own personal reading material. These are not acceptable conditions for eBooks.
I am a reader. As a customer, I am entitled to be treated with respect and not as a potential criminal. As a consumer, I am entitled to make my own decisions about the eBooks that I buy or borrow.
I am concerned about the future of access to literature and information in eBooks. I ask readers, authors, publishers, retailers, librarians, software developers, and device manufacturers to support these eBook users’ rights.
These rights are yours. Now it is your turn to take a stand.
To help spread the word, copy this entire post, add your own comments, remix it, and distribute it to others. Blog it, Tweet it, Facebook it, email it, and post it on a telephone pole.
#ebookrights
To the extent possible under law, the person who associated with this work has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work. http://creativecommons.org/about/cc0
She wrote the book on saving libraries
Feb 23rd
PA Gov. Tom Corbett’s no-new-tax pledge means he has to figure a way to slash billions of dollars across the board from Pennsylvania’s budget, and it’s unlikely libraries will emerge unscathed. Into this breach steps janet jai of Highland Park. (She had her name legally changed to lower-case letters a long time ago, but that’s another story.) Ms. jai (pronounced like the letter J), 65, has rushed out 500 copies of a self-published, 165-page paperback book, “Saving Our Public Libraries: Why We Should. How We Can”.
Read more: in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
Roy Tennant: An Open Letter to New Librarians
Feb 18th
Good advice for the freshly-minted and seasoned librarian: http://bit.ly/geCg2X
The Great Librarian Write-Out!!
Feb 11th
Want to save libraries? We’ve got to step outside the libraryland echo chamber*, and talk with to people who don’t live, eat, breath and obsess about libraries most every minute of the day. The ever-awesome Patrick Sweeney has launched a very, very cool project to get us going: http://pcsweeney.com/2011/02/10/the-great-librarian-write-out/
You’ve got nearly a year to participate. Please join in!
*See also
Bobbi Newman’s Thinking Outloud About the Echo Chamber
Ned Potter’s #echolib post
Andy Woodworth’s Dismantling the Echo Chamber
Camden Loses Its Soul for Good…Closes Main Library
Feb 11th
From the AP, sad story of the closing of Camden NJ’s main library.
Jerome Szpila took the job as director of the Camden library less than a year ago, with plans to upgrade a system that has suffered from years of underfunding. Librarians say they haven’t been able to buy a new book in more than a year.
The check-out system still uses paper cards of the type that were retired in most big public libraries by the 1970s. There’s no computerized inventory of the collection and the old card catalog system hasn’t been updated for years.
“We don’t know what we have,” he said. But as he arrived, he realized the challenge was more elemental: He would just try to keep the libraries running.
“It’s a sad day to say the city cannot afford its own library,” he said.
Szpila was one of the 19 employees at the library as it closed. Along with eight others, he’s been hired to staff the new Camden branch of the county library. The others are preparing for unemployment.
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