Library Story of the Day–Consortia Boycott HarperCollins

Library consortia around the nation are starting to boycott HarperCollins because of the 26-loan restriction on e-book lending.  The consortia have voted to boycott HarperCollins until there is a change in policy or price.  Adding to the hassle would be the need to track each e-book, modify the catalog when the title had reached the 26-loan mark, and then re-modify the catalog when a new copy of the e-book was purchased.

As of today, the boycott of HarperCollins is still on and you can read more about the pressure consortia are adding in the Library Journal article here.

NHPRC Funding and a HarperCollins Update

NHPRC Funding

In its proposed budget, the House of Representatives has cut funding for the National Historical Publication and Records Commission (NHPRC) from $10 million per year to $4 million.  NHPRC is the granting body of the National Archives, and many organizations rely on its funding to perform duties that they otherwise could not do because of a lack of funding.  As an example, Amherst College recently received an NHPRC grant to process the collections of Charles R. Kades, Karl Loewenstein, and Willard L. Thorp, who were all instrumental in post-WWII reconstruction of belligerent nations.  Without funding, these collections would remain unprocessed and inaccessible to students and researchers.

I urge you to send a quick email or make a phone call to your senators asking for a level of funding not below $8 million per year.  This is in line with cuts that have been made for other programs.  Go here at senate.gov to locate the contact information for your senators and send an email as simple as: “I support our nation’s archives and their mission of preserving our history and making it accessible to all.  Please support NHPRC funding at a level not below $8 million this year.”  Just copying and pasting this statement and sending it to your senators could make a major difference for archives throughout the nation.

HarperCollins Update

On a second story, OverDrive, an e-book distributor, stated that until they have time to review the issues and their consequences, all HarperCollins e-books have been removed from their library marketplace and placed in a separate catalog.

HarperCollins released a statement yesterday defending its 26-loan limit that you can read here.  It basically states that this is the way it is going to be.  HarperCollins sidesteps one of the main issues, though, in not addressing library ownership.  Once a library buys an e-book it should be able to lend it howsoever it chooses.  The library should not be bound to licensing agreements in perpetuity every time that they purchase or repurchase an e-book.

Library Story of the Day–Boycott of HarperCollins

The publisher HarperCollins recently decided to change their lending policy on ebooks.  The previous policy–which was already restrictive enough–was that only one copy of an e-book could be loaned at a time.  The new policy adds that this copy will self-destruct after it has been loaned 26 times.  So once an e-book has been loaned 26 times, a library must then purchase a new copy.

Librarians Brett Bonfield and Gabriel Farrell have begun a boycott of HarperCollins until they remove the 26-loan limit on ebooks.  You can check the status of the boycott at www.boycottharpercollins.com.  They have included a letter to Brian Murray, President and CEO of HarperCollins, urging him to reconsider.  I have copied the text of the letter below and urge you to send it along or at least to email it to HarperCollins at <feedback2@harpercollins.com>.

I wrote earlier about e-readers and children, and how the format is really taking off with them.  If the 26-loan limit remains, it could severely limit what libraries can do with e-books–especially with the financial concerns of most libraries–and will hurt those that depend on the library’s resources.  As e-books continue to gain popularity with young readers, HarperCollins will be restricting access to these educational tools.

Here is the text of the sample letter (again, I urge you to send it along):

Mr. Brian Murray
HarperCollins Publishers
10 East 53rd Street
New York, NY 10022

Dear Mr. Murray:

I am writing to express my concern about a recent announcement by HarperCollins. I understand that you intend to place a limit on how many times libraries can lend HarperCollins ebooks. If you go through with this policy, library ebooks will self-destruct after they have been loaned out 26 times.

I urge you to reconsider this policy. Like many people, I respect and rely on libraries. The increasing popularity of ebooks is giving libraries a chance to reach people in new ways, continuing to spread literacy and engender a love of reading. Your proposed policy will hurt libraries and, more importantly, it will limit the options available for millions of current and potential readers across the nation. For that reason, I cannot see myself purchasing books or ebooks from HarperCollins or any of its imprints until you stop your policy of causing library materials to self-destruct.

Libraries do not abuse their relationship with publishers. I hope HarperCollins will soon return to treating libraries and library users with the respect we deserve.

Sincerely,

Library Story of the Day–Google Adjusts Search Algorithm

Google is changing their algorithm that determines the order of return results from a search.  The goal is to reduce the number of sites that come up that don’t have substantial content for the user.  Those sites that work on being high on search results but are merely sites with many ads will now be much lower in results.  Google has been working on these changes for about a year and is now implementing them after recent criticism to their search results.

How will this effect libraries?  Will Google’s new search algorithm (and any future changes they make) increase the relevancy of their results to the point that libraries are redundant?  Right now this is not the case since more in-depth questions are better answered through library resources and with the aid of a reference librarian.  As Google searches become more relevant for the user, though, libraries must continue to increase their level of service to ensure that they offer something for the user that they can’t get other places.

For the full Wall Street Journal article, click here.

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Library Story of the Day–Library of Alexandria Reopens, and a video

The Library of Alexandria has reopened thanks to the demonstrators who formed a human chain around it during the revolution.  Due to their efforts, no harm befell the library as has happened during other uprisings and invasions.  Click here for the full article from NPR.

Demonstrators ring the Library of Alexandria | npr.org

 

Also, here’s a sweet stop animation video of books on a bookcase.

Library Story of the Day–Open Library

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the Internet Archive.  They also have a project that is book-specific.  At Open Library, they are trying to make a web page for every single book.  That’s every edition of every book in every language ever written.  A lofty goal to say the least.  They have started by uploading the information from large library catalogs and are coupling this with the additions of individuals.

Screenshot of the Open Library home page | openlibrary.org

The site has a wiki interface so that users can add or edit information to existing pages or can add new pages for new books.  The site currently has over 20 million books and over 1 million ebooks that you can read online or download in a variety of formats free of charge.  With over 5 million unique hits in the past 28 days, Open Library is generating much interest and has a great start on creating a universal bibliography.

Library Story of the Day–74 Volumes of Thomas Jefferson Found

Pages showing Jefferson's distinctive "T.I." marking (I and J were basically the same in the Latin alphabet) Credit: Joe Angeles

Yesterday, Washington University in St. Louis announced that it had confirmed that 74 of its books originally belonged to Thomas Jefferson and were part of his personal library.  The finding contains 28 titles and a total of 74 volumes, which were bought at auction by Joseph Coolidge, Jefferson’s grandson-in-law, after Jefferson’s death.  When the Coolidges donated their library to Washington University in St. Louis, the Jefferson books were included without comment and only recently rediscovered.  Washington University in St. Louis now has the third largest collection of Thomas Jefferson books after the Library of Congress and the University of Virginia.

For the full story, see: 74 of Thomas Jefferson’s books identified at Washington University library

Library Story of the Day–New York Times Article on Marginalia

Here is an interesting article in the New York Times that discusses the fate of marginalia in our increasingly electronic society.  Worth a quick read.

Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins

Sally Ryan|New York Times

Library Story of the Day

I will now be posting stories (hopefully daily) about what is going on in the world of libraries and archives.   These posts will be all over the map and won’t necessarily have a direct link to open access: they are simply to let you see stories and other items that you normally wouldn’t get to.   As always, I welcome and appreciate any feedback.  Please visit the “contact me” page if you’d like to send a private email.