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Posted by Norman Oder on October 28, 2009
One of the most interesting things in a Chicago Tribune article about whether burning CDs borrowed from the library is a copyright violation--lawyers say yes, it's a no-brainer--is the attached poll, which, though admittedly unscientific, shows that the largest group of respondents consider it fair use.In other words, there's a big disjuncture between law and (many people's) reality. On Publib, commentator Walt Crawford suggested the copying may be copyright infringement, it's not piracy (an option in the poll), given the lack of financial gain--though not everybody agreed. The ...Read More Industries: Copyright/Fair Use
Posted by Norman Oder on October 27, 2009
Tracy Kidder, author most recently of Strength in What Remains, the story of an immigrant's remarkable journey from Africa (LJ review), spoke to the Cohasset (MA) Mariner about libraries, in anticipation of his Nov. 2 visit sponsored by the Cohasset Library Trust:The cause of the public library doesn’t seem to have a strong enough constituency to get the funding, but libraries bring more to a community than some realize. I remember going to a run...Read More
Posted by Norman Oder on October 26, 2009
The New York Public Library (NYPL) expects a 21% decline in its fundraising this year, to $130 million, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, via the Los Angeles Times.That's a loss of more than $34 million, which surely cuts down on a wide range of new projects and initiatives, and likely is one spur for NYPL's continued restructuring. Then again, $130 million remains a healthy sum, a testament to NYPL's unusual hybrid as research library/branch system, leading to a longstanding position as a top charity for both well-heeled New Yorkers and nostalgic city natives. Industries: Funding
Posted by Norman Oder on October 23, 2009
So, a new book, a mass market paperback titled In the Middle of the Night: The Shocking True Story of a Family Killed in Cold Blood (St. Martin's True Crime Library), offers an accused murderer's account of graphic killings in Cheshire, CT, apparently violating a gag order.The town library has been criticized for buying it and opening up new wounds. (Reader reviews on Amazon.com are mostly but not uniformly negative.) The library board is meeting tonight to discuss the issue. The Cheshire Herald reports: The book has generated a bac...Read More
Posted by Norman Oder on October 21, 2009
The Fayetteville Public Library, AR, has introduced a new fundraiser, a $10 library card, with proceeds used to make the Blair Library more sustainable, including the installation of more LED lights and the purchase of additional thin clients, which replace desktop computer towers, taking up less space and using less energy. The photo of Blair Library is by  local artist Steve Moore.
Industries: Funding
Posted by Norman Oder on October 21, 2009
From a New York Times article today headlined E-Book Fans Keep Format in Spotlight: Amazon for example, says that people with Kindles now buy 3.1 times as many books as they did before owning the device. That factor is up from 2.7 in December 2008. So a reader who had previously bought eight books from Amazon would now purchase, on average, 24.8 books, a rise from 21.6 books.This raises some very interesting issues for libraries. First, consider that public libraries currently using ereaders are circulating library-owned devices preloaded with library content, with the device maker's agreement (as with the Sony Reader) and without (as with ...Read More
Posted by Norman Oder on October 16, 2009
Much in a front-page New York Times article yesterday, headlined Libraries and Readers Wade Into Digital Lending, was hardly new to our readers, but there was a very interesting passage touching on the purchasing model for e-books:Pam Sandlian Smith, library director of the Rangeview Library District, which serves a suburban community north of Denver, said that instead of purchasing a set number of digital copies of a book, she would prefer to buy one copy and pay a nominal licensing fee each time a patron downloaded it....Read More Industries: Managing Libraries
Posted by Norman Oder on October 7, 2009
Now that the Seattle Public Library (SPL) is implementing some changes in borrowing limits, fines, and fees that were announced in June, some readers are none too pleased.Resident Carole Glickfield criticized the $5 fee on each interlibrary loan, writing to the Seattle Times: Given that the library often fails to replace classics that have gone missing or fallen apart and that the library often does not order important books, their placing a huge fee on each loan is outrageous.
Posted by Norman Oder on October 5, 2009
Lewis Hyde, author of The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, wrote a very tough essay for yesterday's New York Times Book Review on the pending--and delayed--Google Book Search settlement. His headline: Advantage Google. Hyde takes particular aim at the effort to privately resolve the dilemma of access to orphan works--books in copyright but out of print: The point here, of course, is that the parties to the Google settlement are asking the judge to let them be orphan guardians but without any necessary obligation to the public side of the copyright bargain. Quite the opposite: if Judge Ch...Read More
Posted by Norman Oder on October 5, 2009
I too am getting a kick out of the anecdotes on the relatively new (and anonymous) blog, The Merry Librarian, billed as "True Stories from a Library Near You…No "Shh"!"The site includes stories of some verrry demanding patrons (one of whom somehow thought a librarian would come help on a home construction job), icky tales of puke, and a truly heartwarming story about a an ex-con dad, his miscreant son, and some stolen-but-returned DVDs. Not all merry, but definitely memorable.
Posted by Norman Oder on September 29, 2009
In an interesting review essay in The Atlantic headlined Life In (and After) Our Great Recession, Benjamin Schwarz reminds us that the seminal book to report on daily life is Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd’s Middletown in Transition (1937), a follow-up to their study Middletown (1929), set in Muncie, IN. Anxiety about money, they reported, led families to stay at home more, playing games and gardening. Schwarz adds: And—that free...Read More
Posted by Norman Oder on September 24, 2009
AL Direct points us to Florida's Ask a Librarian Blog, which has a a very cute tale about how Paula Bagwell, a librarian from St. Petersburg College, received a marriage proposal from her boyfriend during what she thought would be a reference chat session.
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