Hello ebook aficionados,
Happy New Year!
Sorry for any xpostings on this one, but Tony Ageh, Michael Bayler, Chris Durlacher and Julian Turner have taken a detailed look at the difficulties library face in preservation under currently prevailing conditions. RF has often lamented that books see to lose their importance for many publishers after they no long seem to have commercial value, and yet they fight to prevent digital sharing and even library archiving of those same works. It's well worth a look:
"Digital-only e-books and e-journals will be lost unless publishers, research libraries, and dark archives collaborate to ensure their long-term preservation.
Preservation of Knowledge in the Digital Age is a new report was commissioned by Arcadia from Ageh Consulting and co-authored by . It involved interviews with 43 key figures and a survey of librarians from a range of institutions. It highlights that even when libraries' licences for e-books allow for copies to be archived, few possess the capability and resources necessary for systematic digital preservation. Moreover, although publishers' agreements with so-called 'dark archives' should ensure that copies survive, this is rarely applied to ebooks and – for both books and journals – the principle that 'lots of copies keeps stuff safe' may be being breached in practice.
You can download the full report here."
The Core Ebooks Interest Group will, I hope, be meeting the Friday before ALA Annual from 9 am to noon. If you are planning on attending, hope to see you then!
Nobody has emailed me about possibly chairing this group next year. Hey, it's fun, it's easy. You post interesting news to this list-and who isn't interested in important ebook developments!-and then plan one annual meeting. Wait, you say, is that meeting planning really so easy? And does being chair require going to Annual? The answer to these burning questions are, in order, "Yes" and "No."
You'll have plenty of help with the planning.
You wouldn't have to go to Annual-someone will also help with that.
Don't miss this great opportunity, which will not come again this whole year!
All best,
Michael
Michael Blackwell
Director, St Mary's County Library
23630 Hayden Farm Lane
Leonardtown, MD 20650
301-475-2151 x5013
Cell phone: 301-904-3048
mblackwell@stmalib.org
