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Dear colleagues If you're in London or surrounding area - this might be a good way to spend the last Thursday evening of this month. Details below. Barbara Stratton copyright and information society consultant libraries, archives, information services & museums E: [log in to unmask] FB: https://www.facebook.com/barbara.stratton.524 Member of Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA) http://www.cilip.org.uk/laca Copyright and other Legal Matters Committee, International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) http://www.ifla.org/clm Expert Group on Information Law, European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) http://www.eblida.org London Information and Knowledge Exchange - LIKE 40: E-books and e-lending, 29th November Date: Thursday 29 November Time: 6pm for 6.30pm prompt Location: The Castle, 34-35 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6DB Nearest tube: Farringdon Price: £17 including dinner, speaker and two glasses of wine or £12 if you want to buy your own drinks Hashtag: #like40 Bookings : http://like40.eventbrite.com E-books herald another revolution in how we access information. Being licensed digital products, however, purchasers only buy access controlled by DRMs, not ownership. Many publishers fear piracy and view public library e-lending as a direct threat to their economic interest, so public library users are finding they can’t borrow many bestsellers because the biggest English language trade publishers are making it difficult, even impossible. Further competition is coming from new e-rental services, such as Amazon’s, already available in the USA and arriving soon in the UK. Academic publishers are selling e-books for e-lending by university, college and research libraries, but the ‘Big Six’ (soon five) publishers and public libraries have been unable to find a viable way forward. UK culture minister, Ed Vaizey, recently set up an independent review on public library e-lending, led by publisher William Sieghart, to report ‘in the New Year’. This matters to all information professionals because it is publishers, not librarians, who now decide library e-book collection and availability policies. Public libraries are particularly vulnerable: in the UK, 30 years of public library budget cuts have shown that if libraries can’t stock the works users want, when they want and in the format they want, users vote with their feet. As e-books become the norm and hard copy the niche, if the current e-lending situation persists in public libraries, many people will stop using them to borrow books. This will diminish the maintenance of a healthy reading culture, which will adversely affect publishers, booksellers and authors and risks the permanent decline of the public library service – a service that is the beacon of a civilised and open society. LIKE brings you a panel of sizzling discussants on a fundamental issue for the future of libraries: Phil Bradley is a well-known information specialist and internet consultant who has worked in the area of e-publications for over 20 years. Phil is also President of CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, but will be appearing in a personal capacity. Sarah Houghton is Director of San Rafael Public Library in California, but is best known as ‘The Librarian in Black’ http://librarianinblack.net. She describes herself as “a big technology nerd” and “believes in the power of libraries to change lives.” Sarah takes great pride in being called an iconoclast, a contrarian, a future-pusher, and “a general pain in the ass”. Sarah will be joining us by Skype (connectivity permitting). Richard Mollet became CEO of the Publishers Association in 2010 after being Director of Public Affairs at the BPI, which represents the British recorded music industry’s big labels, where he was also closely involved in copyright and digital economy issues. In a parallel universe, Richard was also Labour’s candidate in South West Surrey in the 2010 General Election, coming third against the winner, one Jeremy Hunt (Con.), lately Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The panel will be chaired by Barbara Stratton, a library copyright and information society consultant who was formerly Senior Policy Adviser at CILIP. Barbara works with the Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance (LACA), EBLIDA (the European library association) and IFLA, to advocate for a fair copyright regime that balances the needs of information chain stakeholders and promotes access to knowledge. To book your place go to: http://like40.eventbrite.com