The Washington Office Update opened with “Turning the Page on E-Books,” a wide-ranging discussion driven by questions from the overflow crowd.
Panelists Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, Sue Polanka, head of reference and instruction at Wright State University, and Tom Peters, CEO of TAP Information Services, spoke on a range of topics related to e-books, including the near future of the format, accessibility, legal issues, and the differences between licensing and purchasing.
Kahle declared that “The e-book thing has happened; it isn’t happening.” As evidence of the adoption of e-books, he noted that the last Barnes and Noble in San Francisco recently closed, after all Borders stores closed previously.
Polanka concurred, declaring “The market is going very fast, and it’s leaving us behind.” All is not bleak; however. Libraries have a history of providing new services for patrons to experiment with, such as internet access in the early 1990s. She recommended that libraries increase dialogue with vendors, discussing how libraries can better lend e-books ethically.
“We’re going to see new genres coming out,” Peters asserted, offering the cell phone novel as an example. While genres are tied to technology, “ultimately, it’s about the experience of the end-user.”
Kahle suggested that e-books can fit well with the core of library services. “What libraries do is we buy stuff and we lend it…. Let’s do our jobs, digitize what we have to, buy what we can, but make sure we’ve got great collections for our patrons.”
Washington Office Director Emily Sheketoff opened the session with a few pieces of unrelated Washington news, announcing that “Yesterday FEMA changed its policy, and now for the first time libraries are eligible for funding for temporary relocation after a disaster.” She also highlighted some of the developments from the end of last year, including LSTA’s reauthorization, Susan Hildreth’s confirmation as IMLS director, and the passage until March 4 of the continuing resolution on appropriations—which also raises the spectre of “horrible” negotiations and cuts in future appropriations. “We are hopeful that we will prevail, but it will be up to you, the grassroots, to make sure that Congress understands the crucial role that libraries play.”
