A good read for the holiday weekend!
You can read the report online or download a PDF of the special supplement at:
http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/f8ac9caa#/f8ac9caa/1
From the ALA Press Release:
"The American Library Association (ALA) today released a new report examining critical issues underlying equitable access to digital content through our nation's libraries. In the report, titled "E-content: The Digital Dialogue," authors explore an unprecedented and splintered landscape in which several major publishers refuse to sell e-books to libraries; proprietary platforms fragment our cultural record; and reader privacy is endangered.
"Broad information access is essential for communities to compete in the global knowledge economy," said ALA President Molly Raphael. "As more and more content is delivered digitally, we simply cannot afford to lock down books and lock out readers. This timely supplement addresses the need to protect fair and reasonable library access to digital information."
The report, published as a supplement to American Libraries magazine, explores various licensing models and the state of librarian-publisher relations. Additionally, the report provides an update on the ALA-wide effort to promote access to digital content (co-chaired by Robert Wolven, associate university librarian at Columbia University, and Sari Feldman, executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library). The effort includes meeting with publishers, distributors and other important stakeholders; championing public advocacy, and writing position papers that advance practical business models without compromising library values.
"E-content: The Digital Dialogue" identifies a number of ways libraries and publishers can collaborate to lessen the digital content divide.
"Publishers, distributors and libraries must accept that new models of lending will not look like the old print model," writes Robert C. Maier, director of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, and Carrie Russell, director of the ALA Program on Public Access to Information. "We are not just trying to solve a library lending problem, although that is the current emergency."
Read more from the press release at:
http://www.ala.org/news/pr?id=10543
Janet McKenney
Director of Library Development
Maine State Library
64 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
207-287-5620
207-287-5624
|
