Group items tagged

"The global electronic marketplace is rapidly depleting authors' income streams. It seems almost every player - publishers, search engines, libraries, pirates and even some scholars - is vying for position at authors' expense."

Since ALA President Maureen Sullivan threw down the proverbial gauntlet to publishers and they've picked it up, there's been a lot of inspired responses.  Jamie LaRue has a radical one himself-- circumvent the publishers, and ask the authors how they'd like their electronic books to be distributed. It's a bold proposition (posing the question, "Are publishers necessary?"), but certainly a way for libraries to work with authors to maximize their profits.

Google seems to be in the news again. Article 1 of 2: Thousands of authors can sue Google in a class-action lawsuit over its plan to create the world's largest digital book library, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin in Manhattan also rejected Google's bid to dismiss claims by The Authors Guild and several groups representing photographers and graphic artists, which would have forced their members to sue individually.

This article is the first of a series of two. The author describes how they typical arguments on both sides of the ebook debate, from publishers and libraries, do not actually work, since they have their basis in older models of sales and library use of physical items. Since ebooks are leased, not actually sold, the author suggests a pay-by-circulation model, since it is easier to track and will be less risky for libraries. This model would have to be done carefully, or it may backfire. It certainly is more fair, but I wonder how much of the electronic publishing industry remains afloat from selling packages-- that is, large sets of ebooks that have appeal because, among their numbers, they do have high-demand titles. A pay-by-circulation model could mean that libraries can license individual titles from publishers, completely bypassing unknown ebooks that need libraries for exposure.

In this well-researched and provocative article, the author argues that a "philosophy" of librarianship is needed that is based on "praxis, not practice."  She argues that rather than explaining our value to the public, librarians should explain their philosophy-- "why we do what we do"-- as that will better help librarians adapt to changes in procedure ("practice") that come with changes in technology. Frustratingly, the author never prescribes an actual philosophy of librarianship for her own part, choosing instead to review the work done by others and recap the current philosophy debate in the field.

The title is misleading, rather than being about a author who can't get people to read her book its about an author who wrote a well received historical/scholarly book but can't get her local library to accept a copy because it's not on the New York Times best seller list.

An author recounts a success story and what had to be done to self publish a casebook. Unlike fiction or repackaged public domain material this was a large book, 870 pages and nearly 40 megabytes in size. The author also did not used Amazon but Scribd and Gumroad as publishers.

Includes one of the best brief descriptions of metadata that I've found. The author also, using example photos, illustrates the importance of metadata and its relevance to a material being used.

Nice! Thanks for sharing Jennifer.

An article that addresses a problem which has come up before, namely "junk" books made from electronic files, in this case physical copies as opposed to eBooks, but with the same problems. Material in the text is missing, as well as the publisher and print date, edition, the notation about original language or any information about the author. Such information, separated from the original work, means that the context and in some cases documentation for the book are lost, which could harm research and preservation in the long run.

The author talks about how using electronic devices can alter our accustomed behaviors, such as mistakenly swiping a finger when reading a printed newspaper expecting it to turn the page the same as if it were on a tablet. He then carries this over into an argument that the brain changes that cause this hasten the adoption rate for new technologies. Ultimately I disagree with this as it's only becoming habituated to an interface, and not something intrinsic with the medium itself.

An article that makes some good points about copyright, namely that the information we need to access, repair, or modify equipment we own is often copyrighted in itself. Which means by virtue of copyright we are unable to access the service manuals, error codes, or diagnostic tools we need to do anything with a technological device. The author makes a point that while works of art may be restricted by we own a performance right to it, physical objects we own outright.

A somewhat hopeful article pointing out that the interest in e-book readers is leveling off while print continues, and that if anything things such as online self-publishing have helped as it reduces the risk for commercial publishers in recruiting new authors.

A new DRM feature called "SiDiM" intends to watermark eBooks by slightly changing the punctuation and text for each copy, this making them unique. Some concerns is how it may changes things for the reader or from what the author intended. A similar technique is used for some music files.

The legal debate over Google's used of scanned books continues, with a legal victory in the reversal of a court order allowing authors to sue as a group. An eventual outcome is the legal definition of fair use may see a court case that makes clear definitions everyone will be able to benefit from.

The author raises a good point: is there really a way to teach information literacy in a transferrable way?  Or does teaching it in a particular enviroinment (i.e., backing up concepts with hands-on experience) go further to illustrate the subject?

An interesting although perhaps idealistic view of what could happen. The author contends that Google faltered in paying and making arrangements with publishers rather than defending Book Search as fair use, although I'd argue it led directly to the Google Play store for selling media including books. Libraries cooperating to make a Digital Public Library is to me a much more agreeable plan than getting materials digitized and put online by means of a corporation.

This is a really nice article about a few different approaches toward load balancing authored by an engineer that work[s|ed] for GitHub. The top comment is from the guy who made HAproxy refuting some of the OP's assertions.

A federal judge released a 350 page ruling that largely vindicated Georgia State University's use of materials in an Electronic Reserves system called ERES. at issue was how full chapters of books were made available among other material. In 74 cases of alleged infringement only 5 were proven valid as GSU did not place any limit on the amount copied or provided guidance to professors. Provided the ruling stands and is not appealed this could be a landmark decision in fair use. I found it interesting the suit was financially backed by not only the Association of American Publisher but also the Copyright Clearance Center, which provides authorization to use copyrighted materials in electronic reserves, among other things.

The Social Networks and Archival Context Project (SNAC) is a project that aims to bring together online resources and archival materials on historical person, to basically allow a researcher to know where all the records are to understand a person. What I found in the prototype is that it resembled a catalog of sophisticated authority records. This could be useful for someone needing quick information or seeing how a historical figure fits in context, but I question if in the end it doesn't repeat information found almost as readily in other resources such as Wikipedia.

"The current model of digital content delivery for libraries places library users' privacy at risk. Authorizing the loan of an ebook or the use of a database can communicate unique identifiers or personally identifiable information that reveals a user's identity."