Biggest Loser?
Feb 10th, 2012 by Cathy Jo Nelson
Yes we have eBooks--NOT by Cathy Jo Nelson
I have been so disappointed in publishers who are pulling ebook content from library users who want to borrow. The list it seems is getting longer and longer:
- Simon & Schuster
- MacMillan
- Penguin
- Brilliance Audio
- Hatchette Group
(Thanks Sarah Houghton, aka Librarian in Black, for this list. And no people, I will not give these publishers the pleasure of a hyperlink.)
Teaching Tool STOLEN
As a school librarian, I feel it is not just my job but also my DUTY to model ethical use of resources. I dutifully teach students and teachers alike to cite their sources. As we move towards more and more multimedia projects, I teach about content on the Internet that is there FOR SHARING, and model for them using copyright friendly content in these projects. I encourage teachers to include in their rubrics for grading a requirement for citation of all material including sources for information and media in any format.
Incentives to make moral choices with digital content
In the library, I have used iTunes cards as prizes in an effort to discourage the very prevalent peer to peer sharing through bit torrent sites that many youth predominantly use as a source for free content. In this day and age where the tools we have readily at our fingertips make it so easy to bypass legal methods for acquiring copyrighted content, it is my responsibility to not only teach this, but model it as well for my students, and sorry to report, even some of my teachers. It has been a joyful experience to model for students how to “check-out” eBooks from our Overdrive portal.
What!!?
Yesterday though, the news hit me like a ton of bricks–post after post right from my reader. I know I’m probably knee-jerking here–so typical for me. But it just angers me so to know the bottom line for these decisions has to do with the FINANCIAL bottom line for them. I am appalled.
- Andy Woodworth over at Agnostic, Maybe wrote “Penguin Unfriends Libraries”
- Bobbi Newman over at Librarian By Day wrote “How to Talk to Your Patrons About Penguin & Other Publishers Not Loaning eBooks to Libraries”
- Sarah Houghton over at Librarian in Black wrote “Notice to publishers: curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal”
Widening the Digital Divide
These publishers are contributing not only to the growing digital divide that separates the “haves” from the “have nots,” but by denying libraries the right to check out books ONE AT A TIME, they are also are contributing to the massive and still growing black market of digital copyrighted content. Through the use of sharing files, files that are so-called protected under copyright, there are those who will guilt-free “get their wanted goods” by whatever it takes. Those who can’t afford it will use the sites complete with a widely available network of amateur experts to help them find and illegally download content for free. So the black market grows. This denial of access to libraries is to “increase” the their financial gains, but in all likelihood, the publishing companies make the same money, maybe even less. The biggest loser, though, is my school library program. It loses access to popular ebooks my students prefer. And worse, we lose a way to teach and model ethical use of digital content. Sigh.
Knee-jerk!
Yeah, I’m probably knee-jerking at the moment. But I’m mad. Come on you guys!! Libraries didn’t hurt your industry by offering loans on print books. why do you think it will hurt your indusrty with digital loans? This is crazy!
Action?
What can I do? What can YOU do? Check the ideas posted by Sara Houghton and Bobbi Newman from their links above. They are TRUE action items that could have real results–more so than my whine/rant here, in Twitter, or in Facebook.
sign at the San Rafael Public Library
Images:
Sign at the San Rafael Public Library by Sarah Houghton. http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/LibraryEbookSign2.jpg (Download from Google Docs here.)
Yes! We have eBooks-NOT by Cathy Jo Nelson
PosterMyWall.com creation
Hi Cathy Jo,
We’ve decided in our district that we will grow our e-book collection in the non-fiction areas to supplement research and reference for students and for group reading materials for younger students. We looked hard at Overdrive but it was too restrictive, expensive and did not offer the popular titles we’d hoped for. We are trying Mackin Via. The only cost for that service is the cost of the titles themselves.
I am hoping that publishers will eventually take a lesson from iTunes – when IP is reasonably prices and easily accessed, people will buy it rather than steal it. I’m afraid Penguin and others are just priming the piracy pump.
Doug
Great post, Cathy and expressing the growing frustration of a lot of us.
I posted today on my blog about my talks with Follett about their e-book product. Looks promising for schools, and Doug, it’s definitely more cost effective.
I wonder what publishers are planning to do with their e-book content? I also wonder if libraries can sue Penguin directly if the library has Overdrive?
Cathy Jo, I just reconfirmed with Follett that they haven’t lost any of these publishers. Now that they have a new digital reader app to download books on iPads & Android tablets, I plan to spend my ebook money with them. Now, as a caveat, I haven’t tried the new app, yet, because we’re waiting on a few things to fall into place. But, it may be an option if the publishers aren’t pulling from them. I hate to even post about it, because I don’t want to jinx anything!
Just a thought.
Wow, that’s terrible! I admit, I hadn’t heard about this until reading your blog post. But wow — I understand that publishers need to make money, but libraries have always been such an important backbone of learning and to cut them off from eBooks seems just wrong.