Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Will Kindles kill libraries?

Will Kindles kill libraries? Eugenia Williamson. The Phoenix. July 27, 2011.
[There are many sources discussing this major change for publishing and libraries.  This post really looks at the preservation aspect.]

"Preserving materials for future generations is a big part of why libraries exist in the first place. According to the American Library Association, preservation upholds the First Amendment by contributing to the free flow of information."

But a library can't preserve a book it doesn't own, and many digital works are now being licensed rather than purchased. One company, OverDrive, is a middleman negotiating between the libraries and publishers.  It is unknown if there are long term rights for these materials, and if so, what the rights are, and how this fits into a preservation model.

As reported in Library Journal, that state's library system began using those services in 2006, and last year, that company proposed a new contract that would raise administrative fees 700 percent by 2015.

Kansas has announced their intent to petition for the right to terminate its contract which Kansas believes that it owns the e-books it licensed and has the right to transfer them to a new service provider. If the library cannot do this, they will have spent $568,000 for books it can no longer access, which is more than if they had purchased print copies that they would own.

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