The Rabid Librarian's Ravings in the Wind: Publishers

Showing posts with label Publishers. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Are you listening, publishers?

Unlike every other channel for e-books, libraries are not the publishers’ competitors. They don’t want to sell devices. They don’t want to win over customers to a particular cloud. They just want readers to read, writers to write, and publishers to sell. They deserve a better deal than they’re getting.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Here's an interesting take on the 'war' between libraries and publishers over e-books

The Wrong War Over eBooks: Publishers Vs. Libraries

'Libraries, like other consumers, should be free to buy any published e-content at competitive prices, to keep these items in their collection, and to loan them to their patrons. Anything less violates basic democratic principles …'--American Library Association
Libraries and big six publishers are at war over eBooks: how much they should cost, how they can be lent and who owns them. If you don’t use your public library and assume that this doesn’t affect you, you’re wrong.

In a society where bookstores disappear every day while the number of books available to read has swelled exponentially, libraries will play an ever more crucial role. Even more than in the past, we will depend on libraries of the future to help discover and curate great books. Libraries are already transforming themselves around the country to create more symbiotic relationships with their communities, with book clubs and as work and meeting spaces for local citizens.

For publishers, the library will be the showroom of the future. Ensuring that libraries have continuing access to published titles gives them a chance to meet this role, but an important obstacle remains: how eBooks are obtained by libraries.

It's an a good overview of the problems of e-books and the arguments on both sides, plus the author's own solution to pricing, which has some merit. This is the first of a two-part series, the second looking at the future of libraries. Whereas this one dealt with the 'Big Six' publishers, the other will look at small publishers, self-published authors, etc.