Mike Kelly writes about a new ebook service.
“The Freading service will offer library patrons unlimited, simultaneous access to the available titles. There’s no access fee for libraries (although there’s a $150 setup fee for first-time customers of Library Ideas), and libraries budget a given amount for access to the collection.
Patrons can then download books for a two-week loan, with a two-week renewal if desired.”
From Mike Kelly’s post for Library Journal, “New Ebook Service Launched, Takes Its Inspiration from Freegal”
Kathleen Hughes discusses the ALA’s policy brief on the future of libraries.
“The report explores how emerging technologies combined with challenges, such as financial constraints as well as shifts in the nature and needs of library users, require libraries to evolve rapidly and make strategic decisions today that will influence their future for decades to come.”
From Kathleen Hughes’s post for the Public Library Association, “Future of libraries ‘confronted’ in new ALA Office for Information Technology Policy report”
The BBC reports on the British Library’s deal with Google
“The digitised works are just a small fraction of the library’s collection which totals more than 150 million items representing every age of written civilisation, including books, journals, manuscripts, maps, stamps, music, patents, photographs, newspapers and sound recordings in all written and spoken languages.”
From The BBC article, “British Library makes Google search deal”
Glyn Moody criticizes the British Library-Google Deal
“In other words, far from helping to make knowledge freely accessible to all and sundry, the British Library is actually enclosing the knowledge commons that rightfully belongs to humankind as a whole, by claiming a new copyright term for the digitised versions. Call me ungrateful, but that’s a gift I can do without.”
From Glyn Moody’s post on the “Open…” blog, “British Library Encloses the Public Domain”