This was (for those who missed this) the way the Guardian reported the issue:
Ebook restrictions leave libraries facing virtual lockout
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/oct/26/libraries-ebook-restrictions
There is actually an international competitiveness angle to this as well. While for example the Japanese e-book industry is to create a common e-book format with the aim of making content viewable on any reader device[1] (there have been similar proposals in France also[2]), in the West we can't use a Kindle to read a library e-book. Looking at the Overdrive site for my own library authority, one of the first things that struck me is that each individual title has its own capabilities as to what can be used to read it - a few are pdfs, others can be read on an iPhone, others are Sony reader compatible, etc. If this continues there never will be a serious e-book stock for a library e-user. The question is would a national e-book strategy be in the interests of the nation? (Perhaps an economist could comment on this.) Is there a risk of the UK falling being as other nations fully capitalise on e-book technology?
[1] http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/japanese-ebook-industry-to-create-common-format
[2] http://www.teleread.com/chris-meadows/france-has-e-babel-problems-of-its-own
Where do the libraries fit into this. One of the reasons for the public library 160 years ago was that while education was advancing and people were increasingly learning to read, after leaving school the population did not have access to books. We live in a different age, a communications and information age, a) the nature of reading has greatly changed, and b) there is now an economic imperative as well (the information economy). The traditional 'Dewey' library with its fiction genra now has a great deal more to do in addition. Organising information for economic use is certainly one activity of the libraries, and concepts and ideas of information organisation and retrieval in the age of the codex are very different in the modern age. But also Reader Development[1] in this modern age where reading is not now just a matter of opening a book or magazine or attending a local book club - we live in an age where reading is altogether a more complex activity. There is an economic argument now for Reader Development in this technological age. The task is still essentially the same as 160 years ago, people still need to know what information is where and how to access it, but libraries have layered on top of 5000 years of literary culture--the codex appearing some 2000 years ago, modern printing approx. 600 years ago, Melvil Dewey developing the DDC in 1876--a new age of information and communications technologies creating a new age in the history of literature and literary culture. The libraries have to align to this new age - archiving and making accesible the knowledge and culture of this new age.
[1] Rachel van Riel I think nowadays prefers the term Reader Centred Approach rather than Reader Development with its original context of funding in the Literary Arts (whilst myself I prefer to simply say how about making 'reader centred reading' (RCR) a key strategy :)
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