EBOOKS: THE NEW NORMAL

The opening keynote of the web conference, Ebooks: The New Normal, gave us a view of the current state of the ever-shifting field of ebooks in libraries. Ian Singer, Library Journal's Vice-President, summarized their recent ebook survey:

• Public libraries have increased their library offerings 185% from 2010 to 2011. That is in spite of three major publishers, McMillan, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster, not offering ebooks to libraries yet.
• 26% of public libraries are considering circulating pre-loaded ereaders or other devices that can be used for ebooks.
• There has been 66% increase in requests for public libraries that don't have ebooks to carry them.
• 48% of public libraries not offering ebooks say they will within two years.
• General adult fiction, general non-fiction and bestsellers are the top 3 categories for public library ebooks, but children's fiction is increasing.
• 75% of public libraries say new users have been brought to libraries by ebooks.
• The top three barriers to patrons' library ebook use are: 1) They are not available for their device (may be changing, now that library books are available for Kindle); 2) Downloading is too hard; and 3) Waiting lists are too long.

The keynote panel then identified some of the main issues libraries have around ebooks:

• We may go for the cheap fix without thinking first.
• Libraries sometimes have restrictive purchasing policies-- purchase orders may not be an option with ebooks.
• The stakes are high-- libraries don't want to pay a lot of money if something will be obsolete in a year.
• There is no digital rights management standard for ebooks, which leads to access frustrations.
• Patron & library concerns are different -- they may be more concerned with easy access than privacy.
• Libraries increasingly license rather than buy.
• We need to design virtual spaces as well as physical spaces--Ebooks don't always come with catalogs that are great for searching and discovery.

John Palfrey, Vice Dean for Library and Information Resources at Harvard Law School, talked about his work on the Digital Public Library of America. The DPLA is a work in progress. They are trying to create a national digital library that would preserve our cultural heritage without being controlled by a for-profit entity such as Google. Other countries are ahead of us in this kind of project. DPLA is trying to create a Wikipedia-like community and encourage collaboration. They envision going across the country to digitize libraries' unique local collections in an RV called a "Scannabego". Computer software companies like Apple and Microsoft are already on board, but DPLA is trying to get more publishers involved, so they can create the right balance between access and copyright.  This article describes some of the issues around the DPLA.

In the program Ebooks: Strategy (not) Required, public librarians discussed their system's ebook strategies.

The King County Library uses browsing lists such as New York Times Bestsellers List and NPR reading lists as ebook discovery tools. They are committed to a 3:1 hold ratio. King County subscribes to Baker & Taylor's Axis 360. They like it because it is device-neutral, has audio and video, is good for picture-intensive titles like picture books and e-books, and they find the Blio software easier to use than Adobe Digital Editions. The main drawback is that it currently works on tablets, computers, and smartphones only, not on ereaders. They are working on having ePub files for ereaders soon--no word on the Kindle format, however.




The Richland County Public Library is very big on training and outreach, as they feel the greatest barrier to ebooks is patron ignorance of availability. They go out to businesses such as restaurants with a mobile lab containing a Nook, iPad, Kindle, mobile Internet hotspot, and laptop and do ebook training. Richland County uses volunteers for some of the training and partners with nearby libraries. They also have "gadget galleries" with coffee and treats, where patrons can try out devices. This training has increased their circulation of ebooks. Richland County is also interested in the 3M Cloud Library because it provides ereaders to check out as well as ebooks.

The Indianapolis-Marion County Public Library is taking a look where their circulation is falling and buying ebooks instead. We have always had to replace old formats with new--compact discs replaced LP's, DVD's replaced videocassettes, the Internet replaced the need for international newspapers and some types of reference books. They have found that patrons read different types of books on e-readers--they may be embarrassed to be seen with a lurid romance cover, but there are no covers on Kindles. Indianapolis-Marion County has not seen a decrease in the hold list for print books, just a total rise in circulation as ebooks are added.

 


I will leave you with some quotes from the conference's chat and Twitter to think about:

"Only 9% of ebook audience think about going to the library. How are we going to make ourselves relevant for digital content?”

"Crazy that publishers don't even know that librarians are doing the best market research - Readers' Advisory research.”

" We are dealing with a patron population that may be more tech savvy than our staff."







A recording of this conference will be available on the Intranet until January 12, 2012.

--Andrea @ Central

The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau

Hello!

The Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CPFB), mandated by The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, has officially opened. If patrons come in with financial questions - student loans & debt, mortgage issues, or simply want help with financial planning and challenges, this is a good place to go for information.

Also, we have a local connection; Skip Humphrey is the head of the Office of Older Americans for the CPFB. There's also an Office of Servicemembers.

Enjoy!

Melissa@Central.

History of Copyright - MLA2011 Presentation

History of Copyright

Nick Lavely

Reference Librarian

Metro State.

Copyright is an agreement - the creator can have all the proceeds from her creation for a while, but society want free access after that.

The Past:

Plautus - 1st person to insist on being payed for using his work.

1710 - British Statute of Anne - very similar to a lot of current copyright law.

Each American Colony came up with their own copyright law. This was a very important issue to the colonies. There is, in fact, a copyright clause in the Constitution: “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.”

1790

With the first congress came the first copyright law. Closely modeled on the British Statute of Ann.

• Covered maps, charts, and books.
• No prior materials were covered – created a public domain.
• Term was 14 years - renewable once for another 14 years.
• Requirement for a depository copy held by the Library of Congress.

1831

• Widows and children could renew.
• Term grew to 28 years, renewable once for 14 years.

1870

• Expanded author’s rights to include translations & dramatic adaptations.
• Included photographs - the hot new technology.

1906 - 1907

• Congress debated perpetual copyright. Mark Twain was a big fan.

1909 – New copyright law.

• Introduced corporate authorship and works-for-hire copyright.
• Term 28 years renewable once for another 28 years.

The Corporate Authorship and Works-for-Hire clause gave publishers (like newspapers) and production companies (like movie studios) the ability to own the rights of everything that was created under the auspices of their companies. It took away the automatic right for the creator to own what they created, which had previously been assumed by copyright law. All studios took advantage of this. D. W. Griffiths used employment contracts to force creators to sign away rights. It corporatized creativity.

“Authorship could not be considered mystical or romantic after 1909. It was simply a construct of convenience, malleable by contract.” (‘Copyrights and copywrongs: the rise of intellectual property and how it threatens creativity’ by Siva Vaidhyanathan, 2003, p. 102.)

1912

• Amended to include motion pictures.

1952

• Amended to include lectures, sermons and performance of nondramatic literary works.

1971

• Amended to include sound recordings.

New technology = new copyright law.

In this period congress would keep expanding copyright for 3 years when necessary so nothing was entering the public domain. This is messy; it creates a lot of orphan works, questions as to what was actually renewed, who has right to claim, etc. Hard for creators to keep up with.

1976 – New copyright law.

• Included any media known or unknown
• Established Fair Use and the 5 Rights of Copyright Holders
• Established library archive rights.
• Registration not required
• Term: life + 50 years, 75 years for works made for hire.

The 5 Rights of Copyright Holders are:

• To reproduce
• To prepare derivative works
• To distribute - sell, rent, lease or lend
• To perform publicly
• To display publicly

4 factor test of Fair Use from Section 107 of the Copyright Act:

• Purpose and character of the use – how creative? Fictional or Factual?
• Nature of the copyrighted work
• Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• Effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

Fair use is determined by case law not public law (law made by the legislature and signed by the president).

Offers restricted rights for copying, distribution, book to movie - make own version

It’s all right to consume media - borrow from library.

Fair use can encompass commentary, parody, limited educational use. It’s nebulous.

Library archiving - Single copy (not digital) for purpose of law

The default is - copyright on. Fair Use switches the paradigm.

Arguments to extend copyright:

• 56 year term is not long enough for an author and their dependents to gain the economic benefits.
• Life expectancy has increased.
• Growth in media has made older media more popular.
• The public already pays for public domain materials.
• Renewal process is time consuming.

1988 - Sonny Bono copyright extension.

• Steamboat Willie (earliest Mickey Mouse cartoon) was about to come out of copyright.
• Copyright holders – with Disney in the forefront, got copyright extended by 20 years.

Nothing new will pass into public domain until 2019.

The copyright agreement is out of balance.

Now

1998 - DMCA

• Signed by President Clinton.
• Works side by side with copyright.
• Limitation against reverse engineering & defeating DRM.
• Anti-circumvention rules.
• Fair use is not a defense.
• Term: ?

Library archiving - Section 108 update - 3 copies, digital; can copy the work if original format becomes obsolete.

What’s obsolete? 8-track is not an obsolete format, nor are LPs - as long as you can find something to play it on, it’s not obsolete.

Basically the DMCA means perpetual copyright as long as a lock exists.

Chilling effects:

• On research, publication, and journalism.
• On legitimate and/or fair use.
• On competition and reverse engineering.

Copyright/DMCA being used as a sword. People are using the DMCA to force removal of unfavorable comments. It’s easy to subvert fair use.

“It appears that the copyright laws are being used as part of a massive collection scheme and not to promote useful arts.” Judge Bernard Zimmerman

Medical Justice is a company that does medical forms. One of the forms you fill out at your doctor’s office might be one of their forms saying that if you review your doctor online, you give up your copyright on the review.

Current academia cases:

• Cambridge U Press v. Patton - Publishers are suing Georgia State University due to the amount and accessibility of content on eReserve system.
• Ambrose Video Publishing vs. University of California - Publishers are suing UCLA for copying a DVD and streaming it to students.
• Authors’ Guild et al vs. Hathi Trust - AG is suing a consortium of universities for sharing digital copies of their works, even though there’s lots of security in place to make sure there’s no access to the full text.

EBooks

• Overdrive, HarperCollins and the 26 loan cap.

There’s a loss of control at all levels. Licensing agreements are also used to subvert copyright laws and rights.

The current use of copyright is locking down our culture.

GoogleBooks (GB) is a fair use case.

• GB changes the paradigm and provides non-linear access by searching the whole card catalog – indeed the whole collection - for a term simultaneously. Highly transformative and does not supplant the need for the original.
• GB is basically creating an index, it is not creative.
• GB requires entire book to be scanned, but the database is secure and only a small portion is shown if copyright is an issue. It’s similar to a quotation. Snippets are not likely to effect purchasing. No need to prove absolute zero damage. Publishers have seen financial gains on GB.

The GB Settlement:

• Will give Google a de facto monopoly
• Setup is similar to ASCAP or BMI without the government controls
• What about library access? Licensing? Orphan works? $150 million immediately? No government oversight? It doesn’t address a lot of questions.
• It was settled out of court.

Afterword

American judgments are way out of proportion to the crimes:

• Sony BMG v. Tenenbaum (student) - He was sued for $675,000 for pirating 31 songs.
• Capitol vs. Thomas - as high as 1.92 mil for 24 songs. This is still in court – decision coming down.

Sweden – someone paid 30 dollars for pirating 24 songs. Much more reasonable.

7 things Google isn’t censoring.

Millions of people have a direct stake in copyright law.

48 hrs of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute.

Since 1909, copyright law has encouraged lawyers for publishers, record labels, motion picture studios and distributors to write law that has benefited them.

ACTA - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement:

• Taking DMCA global.
• Removing safe harbor exceptions unless ISPs enforce three strikes policy.
• Notice and takedowns.
• Mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even for fair use purposes.
• Brings in the government to enforcement private rights – which is ridiculous.

The agreement was passed on 9/30/11 without ratification, going through the Senate, or going to the people.

Wikileaks ha shown how the US has influenced copyright in other countries.

The UK wants to extend copyright for 20 years – The Beatles’ copyrights are ending soon.

It’s all being settled out of court. Nothing is going to court.

--Melissa @ Central

What I learned at MLA 2011

The handouts for all the sessions at MLA 2011 are on MLA’s website: http://mnlibraryassociation.org/2011-handouts/

I attended the following sessions:

The kick-off keynote speaker was Anita Silvey, author of Everything I Need to Know I Learned from a Children’s Book: Life Lessons From Notable People From All Walks of Life. She shared heartwarming stories from her book.

Why Should We Use Social Media to Promote the Library?
Virginia Erbe is part of Rochester Public Library’s (RPL) communications team. She tweets twice a day. During National Book Month, she posted a daily book trivia question on Facebook. She uses Hootsuite to manage her posts. She posts a little game on the library’s Facebook page every Friday; for example, she asks the library’s Facebook friends to list their ten favorite books or some of their favorite authors. When she gets stories from library staff members, she re-purposes them as a Facebook post or a tweet. Virginia recommends using consistent user names for branding purposes. Also, don’t type like a robot—start a conversation with library users. Post as yourself occasionally. Know your audience. Actual posting on RPL’s social media sites only takes 20% of one staff person’s week. Virginia uses the bit.ly URL shortener because that free service provides statistics for how many people clicked on the shortened URL, which is usually a link to RPL. RPL has three facebook pages, three twitter accounts, two YouTube channels, Flickr, and two blogs.

Book Clubs: Hands On to Hands Off:
A panel of four librarians and one civilian presented information for library book clubs, including tips on creating book club in a bag kits, leading a library book club, running an online book club for children and teens, and selecting titles for a book club. Audra Otto, the coordinator of the MinnPost.com Book Club Club, had some great suggestions for reinvigorating a book club including twinning with another book club for one meeting a year and reading one biography, one mystery, one science fiction title each year. She also suggested reading a book that had been made into a film and then attending the film, reading a play aloud together, and meeting at an ethnic restaurant to discuss a book set in that milieu, but these last suggestions don’t seem practical for a library-sponsored book club.

Killer Cocktails/RART Happy Hour:
This event was cosponsored by the Twin Cities Crime Writers and Sisters in Crime (http://www.twincitysinc.org/). There were 17 Minnesota mystery writers at this event, who went from table to table talking about their work. I didn’t realize that a signature cocktail had been created for this event, but several attendees who tried it said it was delicious. Libraries can enter a drawing for $1,000 for their book budgets here: http://www.sistersincrime.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=1&subarticlenbr=53. The only requirement is that you need to include “a photo of one or more of your staff with three books in your collection by Sisters in Crime members.”

To Boldly Go: Fantastical Journeys through Science Fiction Readers’ Advisory:
This excellent overview of the science fiction genre was presented by our own Melissa Gray. Some of the titles Melissa suggested for someone just getting started in this genre included I Robot by Isaac Asimov (hard science fiction); the Foundation trilogy, also by
Isaac Asimov (idea driven series); Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (space opera); the Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger (steampunk); and the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey (fantasy). Please refer to Melissa’s two-page handout (http://mnlibraryassociation.org/uploads/conf11/handouts/C2.pdf , which includes links to her blog and her Delicious.com page.

Readers’ Advisory Round Table Subunit Meeting:
Several members of RART expressed an interest in staff training in readers’ advisory. Rochester Public Library has instituted some RA training and is willing to share their methods, which include a monthly one-hour meeting for the 10 staff members in their Reader Services Division and other interested parties. Preparation for the meeting involves reading an article related to readers’ advisory and then reading a book in a specific genre and talking about it. The books the group reads and annotates are made into a library display with bookmarks, etc. I believe they call the monthly meeting “breakfast of champions,” but that might be what another library system is doing—my notes aren’t clear. We decided that audiobooks and their narrators would be a topic at our 2012 spring readers’ retreat.

Desert keynote: Engagement through Games: Reaching Library Users
through Playful Ways:
Dr. Scott Nicholson, Associate Professor and Program Director for the Masters of Science in Library and Information Science, Syracuse University, talked about games in the library and also had the audience create a role playing game.

E-books: What’s All the EXCITEMENT About?
This was a panel discussion with audience participation. I didn’t really get any new information from it but it was interesting to hear varying perspectives on the issue. Melissa was on the panel, so she can probably offer more insight than I can.

Things in a Flash: The Latest Web 2.0 Tools:
Five librarians introduced five different Web 2.0 tools. Several people talked about QR codes and their applications at the library. My eyes glazed over because I don’t have a smart phone so QR codes have no meaning for me. Two other topics were Wunderlist and Evernote, two list-making apps for the iPhone and iPad.

50 in 60 Book Blast
Library Associates Jennifer Larson and I joined Stephanie Hall, Director of Director of Libraries, Meinders Community Library in Pipestone, Minnesota; Joan Ennis, Librarian at the Northfield Public Library; and Angie Noyes, Librarian at the Hardwood Creek branch of Washington County Public Library; to present our 50 in 60 Book Blast. Each of us talked about 10 books: Nordic mysteries (me), science fiction/fantasy (Stephanie), women’s fiction (Joan), young adult (Jen), and paranormal fiction (Angie). We were lucky this year to start at the relatively civilized hour of 9:30 in the morning, and there were over 120 people in the audience, it was standing room only. We had one technical difficulty—the laptop quit for five minutes in the middle of our Prezi, but I was able to show our slides by holding up my new iPad 2. Also Stephanie had brought all her books, so I held them up during her portion of the show.

Go Forth!
The luncheon keynote speaker was William Kent Krueger, award-winning author of the Cork O’Connor series, who shared several heart-warming stories about his childhood and books and storytelling and libraries.

--Barb @ Highland Park

FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS, PART TWO: RESOURCES FOR CHALLENGING QUESTIONS

The Foundation Center offers an “Ask Us” librarian chat service Monday through Wednesday, 9:30 am - 8:00 pm, Thursday and Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm (Eastern Time). Questions can also be submitted by email. They answered 4,000 chat & email questions in 2010.

A good place to start before asking a question is the Grantspace Knowledge Base, which replaces the old Foundationcenter.org FAQ. It includes tips on how to get started with proposal writing, starting a nonprofit, charitable statistics, and fiscal sponsorship. Fiscal sponsorship is when an individual or organization that does not have 501(c) (3) status partners with one that does. This increases the potential grant pool by a factor of at least 10, although there is usually a 5-10% fee. The new site Fiscalsponsordirectory lets you search for fiscal sponsors by state or area of interest.

In these challenging economic times, the Foundation Center librarians often get questions from people who need help for themselves, rather than getting a grant for their organization. Health and disability needs are the most common. If they need help right away, United Way’s 211 service is a good place to refer them. Benefits.gov offers easy access to government assistance programs. It asks you a series of questions, then gives you a list of assistance you may be eligible for. This makes it a good complement for the Foundation Center databases, since they do not include any government grants or programs. Ed.gov is a good site for adults returning to school or looking for vocational training. For people with disabilities, www.disabilityresources.org has funding information for assistive technology, vocational rehabilitation, and health care.

Although for-profit businesses are generally not eligible for grants from foundations, the Foundation Center offers links on where to get started for business loans and other assistance. Social Enterprise, which combines a social mission with business methods, is a hot trend these days. These are some good links that the librarians recommend to get started.

Nonprofits may need help with legal issues from time to time. The Nonprofit Law Blog is written by attorneys who cover topics like governance, fiscal sponsorship, forms, and intellectual property. If they want to know what to pay their new residence supervisor, the Economic Research Institute has a salary calculator that can be refined by state or zip code. If a nonprofit needs statistics in order to discover giving trends, the Foundation Center has some, as does the Center for Charitable Statistics and the Center for Philanthropy at Indiana University.

So, if you have a real foundation-related stumper, the Foundation Center librarians will be happy to help. I have contacted them a few times--once for a scan from a publication in their library, once to find out if they could recommend a title or not, and they were very helpful.


--Andrea @Central

THE FOUNDATION CENTER NETWORK DAYS PART ONE: STATE OF THE FOUNDATION CENTER

At the Foundation Center’s annual conference, its president Bradford K. Smith discussed trends in philanthropy and how they affect the Foundation Center.

The top five philanthropy trends are:


1) Growing--There are more billionaires every day. The Gates Foundation is encouraging all billionaires to give away half their wealth. It is predicted that giving will go up 2 - 4% in spite of the economy.


2) Global--The wealthiest man in the world is Mexican. There are a couple of Chinese billionaires in the top ten. The Foundation Center is adding more international foundations to their databases.


3) Not just about giving money--foundations are increasingly using targeted investing and subsidized loans as tools. They also offer staff, advice, and long-term business plans.


4) Technology--There is an expectation that organizations will be available online, on social networks and through mobile devices. Online giving sites, like Global Giving, connect directly to donors with no mediation. On the other hand, only 23% of foundations have web sites and 76% have 4 staff or less, so they are still filling out tax forms by hand in some cases. The Foundation Center is encouraging foundations to embrace technology by requesting electronic submissions and suggesting grant management software, as well as showing which Foundations are using Twitter, Facebook, etc. Their new web site Grantcraft offers guides, videos and training for Foundation staff who want to learn about best practices in the field.


5) Transparency--in this information age, there is an expectation that information on who gives what to whom is available. The Foundation Center is encouraging this trend with its web site, Glasspockets.org.




The Foundation Center and its cooperating collections help both grant seekers and grant makers deal with the changes in philanthropy. To quote a conference attendee, “The Foundation Center assists doers who want to do better. If your org/enterprise wants to be the best it can be, you need the Foundation Center's resources and services."

--Andrea @Central