Beverly Goldberg's blog

Ebooks and the Big Six publishers was the first topic addressed at the ALA Executive Board spring meeting, held April 21–22. Because the board fully appreciates the importance of this issue to ALA members, we had planned one hour and 45 minutes for the discussion—an unusually long amount of time for the board to devote to any topic.

About a week ago, an ALA colleague popped into my office with an epiphany. “Libraries will never die out. You know why? If they didn’t exist, people would be inventing them.” As you might imagine, that got us to talking and finding examples—and it certainly wasn’t hard. Little Free Libraries, anyone?

As the Public Library Association Conference (PLA) gets underway this week, I’m just a little jealous to be missing all the fun. Not that I don’t want to be hanging out with my mom during her spring break enjoying the great weather and checking out Washington’s first-blush cherry blossoms, I’d just like to do both!

Beginning with the 2012 American Library Association Annual Conference in Anaheim, California, ALA will award new Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction to one adult title in each category.

The following is a statement issued today by ALA President Molly Raphael:

Yesterday, Penguin Group USA called to alert us that they will no longer offer any ebooks or audiobooks to libraries through OverDrive. While libraries are expected to have continued access to Penguin ebooks already included in their catalogs, the effect today is that readers will have less access to Penguin titles through their local libraries.

The following is a summary of the meetings ALA President Molly Raphael and an ALA delegation held in New York City January 30–February 1 with members of the publishing industry:

Here’s a first take on the talks held this week between American Library Association leaders and the senior management of several New York–based publishers:

Dear Colleagues:

Here is a brief report on our meeting with publishers in New York on January 30–February 1. Others participating in these talks besides myself were: