Major libraries across the U.S. and Canada call for improved access to ebooks for users
“The statement, dubbed the ReadersFirst Initiative, outlines four principles the libraries want e-content providers — the middlemen between publishers and libraries — to follow in order to lift content restrictions and also make the borrowing experience less cumbersome.
“‘Libraries have a responsibility to fight for the public and ensure that users have the same open, easy and free access to ebooks that they have come to rely on with physical books,’ the statement reads. ‘They face two major challenges. The first is that, unlike print books, publishers are not required to sell e-books to libraries – and many do not. This is a complex and evolving issue. The second, addressed here, is that the products currently offered by e-content distributors, the middlemen from whom libraries buy ebooks, create a fragmented, disjointed and cumbersome user experience.’”
From Michael Kelley’s article on The Digital Shift, Top Libraries in the U.S. and Canada Issue Statement Demanding Better Ebook Services
Plans for a national digital summer reading program underway with IMLS grant
“The Public Library Association has been awarded a planning grant of $50,000 from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) to support the research and design of a national digital summer reading (NDSR) program website application (app). PLA will work in partnership with Influx Library User Experience (Influx) to manage the grant project and plan development of the app. Expected to be built on the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) platform, the NDSR app will be available to all libraries in the U.S.”
From the ALA press release, PLA receives IMLS grant to plan for a national digital summer reading program
Ray Bradbury’s digital backlist to be published
“Bradbury’s longtime editor Jennifer Brehl talked to me about the plans and the author, who died Tuesday because, she said, ‘I don’t want people to think he was this dinosaur because he had some opinions’ that he started to change late in life.
“The details for the ‘huge undertaking’ are still being worked out but Brehl said plans were well underway with Bradbury’s approval. (I’ve yet to reach Bradbury’s agent Michael Congdon.) ‘He knew we were going to do this,’ she said. ‘He agreed to it. … I told Ray, ”You have to step boldly into the future.’’”
From Staci Kramer’s post on paidContent, Ray Bradbury wasn’t a digital dinosaur; e-backlist coming
Contribution to National Library preserves Bhutan’s textual heritage in digital archive
“The textual conservation project, an initiative by Dr Karma Phuntsho that started in 2005, photographed over three million pages of different volumes of texts and documents. The digital archive was handed over to the home minister, Minjur Dorji, as an individual contribution for the National Library yesterday.
“‘We discovered some of the most rare documents and texts from among the waste paper dumped in the corner of monasteries,’ he said. ‘People take care of only those ritual scriptures that they use the most, the rest seems neglected.’”
From Samten Yeshi’s article in Kuensel Online, Digital archive donated to National Library