Archives for posts with tag: money
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Libraries Under Siege! Preaching to More than the Choir

March 14, 2011 //

An interesting dispatch from a UK Librarian (Lauren of Walk You Home) about showing the value of Public Libraries to the hack/slash budget crowd.

She puts together a decent list, and then goes on to add:

This isn’t airy-fairy-bunkum or crazy-lefty-ideology (sorry, Mayor Davies) – this is about the fundamentals of society. Libraries are cultural, educational and civic hubs. They always have been, and they always should be. Information and information needs are changing, but information’s not going away, and nor are people! What isn’t clear, though, is how we can prove this to the bean-counters of the world (because sadly, they’re not going away either).

An awful lot of qualitative data has been pouring into the Voices for the Library inbox for several months now. We’ve been presenting it in different ways – stories, guest blog posts, a Mashup challenge, a Wordle about “what libraries mean to you“…

We’ve even had some offers of support from academic departments keen to do something with all the information we’ve been gathering. Hopefully there’ll be time at some point soon to take them up on the offer![full post]

Academic collaborations along these line are already taking place in the US, and some have produced results. Studies like these have to be helpful. Though it would imply there was an actual reasonable rational discussion taking place on the matter.  And, I’m not sure that real information is making it through the ideological clatter.

Still, a new set of portable metrics would be useful. I wonder why someone hasn’t sat down and put together a kit that public libraries can use to generate the sort of economic “straight talking” statistics and dollar amounts that carry water in policy/budget discussions.

There is momentum in that direction. Lauren’s going to what looks like a pretty interesting event on the subject.

…in a couple of weeks I will be taking part in a workshop entitled Measuring the Value of Public Libraries: The fallacy of footfall and issues as measures of the value of public  libraries. I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope that it will be a step away from the simplistic and inaccurate measurement of footfall (the number of people who walk through the doors, and occasionally the people who click on the council’s ‘library’ website) and issue statistics (book/cd/dvd lending), and towards more effective systems of measurement.

I’m jealous and would love to know what kinds of metrics they get into.

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Categories Library News, Public Libraries

Libraries Under Siege! By Puppets and Privitisation!

March 7, 2011 //


A great, educational video via PrivitizationBeast.org, a web-based rallying cry to stop corporate takeovers of libraries.

Here’s a snippet from a recent blog post:

Last year, Santa Clarita’s City Council rammed through a vote to privatize their library system with very little community input. Community members were understandably outraged, and attended several public hearings requesting more community involvement in the decision-making process. Instead of listening to residents, the City Council created a “Citizen’s Advisory Committee” to review Santa Clarita’s library system and its needs and make recommendations for moving forward with LSSI. The committee had no decision-making power, and was widely criticized as a thinly veiled attempt to silence critics.

Oh, but it gets better. The City Council invited LSSI executive Ron Dubberly to chair – or, technically, ‘facilitate’ – this committee. In other words, the committee created to advise on the city’s relationship with a private company is being controlled by that same private company. Dubberly has been President of LSSI’s Public Library Management Operations since 2008.[full post]

That’s madness and a little perturbing. Privatisation is not the best idea. There is no guarantee that privatising something will save costs. For example, last year the Ottawa city garbage workers were able to take away the trash at a cost lower than the lowest private-sector bid.

But, I don’t know if I totally agree with the slippery slope they lay out in the video. Used bookstores and cafés are not so onerous. In the case of cafés, there is an opportunity to build a locally focused business with a strong ethical aspects, such as a commitment  fair trade coffee, compostable cups, etc. Also, no one really is against paying for photocopies, a long standing revenue stream used to offset the cost of the photocopying service. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Library News, Public Libraries, Services, User experience

Licence Culture Wars! Shots from Around the Web!

March 4, 2011 //

Crafty Space Invaders

The fervour stirred up by the HarperCollins eBook policy is pretty amazing, and well, sort of overwhelming. Just check out the #HCOD Twitter stream for an idea about how much there is to sift through.

I found at least one satirical luddite manifesto (beware Skynet!). I’ve never gone in much for Swiftian hyperbole, but they’re out there. For my part,  I prefer more irreverent, practical approaches. I like Boing Boing’s recent post showing how well HarperCollins print books hold up after 26 loans. 

Even though there’s so  much out there, this repsonse from Library Renewal’s blog resonated with me:

Sure, we can be outraged.  But that’s not going to help anybody, and it does not help our institutions, or our partners, to adapt to changing market conditions. If we want to continue to have access to commercial content, we need to go to the table and make deals with publishers, creators, and rightsholders who will work with us…

So what can we do, if not take our ball and go home? Start making the case… The case that libraries of all sizes must develop the technical and political infrastructure to negotiate for and host digital content on our terms.  The case that the publishing industry as it now stands could walk away from libraries en masse tomorrow and come out smelling like a rose… and that such a move may be inevitable as the squeeze continues… and the case that we can’t buy our way out of this problem, even if we had the money. We need to invent our way out of this problem, and adapt to changing market conditions with solutions that work for patrons, for libraries, and for creators.[full post]

Absolutely. It was a good thing to read when other releases like the one from Steve Potash (OverDrive CEO) were getting the high school radical in me totally riled up. Potash concluded his post this way:

…We will protect your ability to make informed choices and we will work with you to set the direction and policies that serve your customers’ interests.[read the full message]

It’s basically caveat emptor, and since libraries are the buyers in this scenario, he’s telling us we should be wary. Not unexpected, it’s hardly what I wanted to hear from the rising-star intermediary between public libraries and licenced eBook content. Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Book News, Library News, Public Libraries, Services, Technology

Licence Culture Wars – Who Benefits from the Subscription Economy

March 2, 2011 //

library closed

From Stephen’s Lighthouse:

The movement to subscription models has some benefits:

1. You’re not locked in forever (or until it wears out) as a purchase can sometimes do.
2. You have the opportunity to offload the ‘keeping up-to-date factor’ on things that need replacing too often at high initial cost (software, servers, devices, etc,) or upgrade with annoying rapidity (like software and phone models).
3. You want to spread your investment out evenly in the annual budget over many years instead of investing in risky decisions that have higher upfront costs and commitments to servers vs browser access.
4. You want to reduce the risk of making a poor decision and committing to one choice that may be overtaken by innovation, trends, competition, time and events.
5. Access to bigger collections at less cost per user annually (like with the periodical experience)
6. Aggregated relationships with book publishers as has happened with periodical article access and standardization of e-formats and metadata and OpenURL compliance, etc.
7. Bulk influence on copyright and licensing of larger assemblages of content (a la Tasini, etc.)
8. Etc.[full blog post]

The last “etc.” could stand for the benefit of being subject to easily changed (by the vendor) terms of use of agreements (c.f. my earlier post on the HarperCollins kerfuffle, a kerfuffle, it should be observed, that could include a great many other vendors).

In fact, though thoroughly optimistic, Abrams’ list is also very one-sided. It’s not hard to imagine why – he is the VP Strategic Partnerships and Markets for Gale Cengage.  EBook sales are his business.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Library News, Public Libraries, Services, User experience, web tools

Licence Culture Wars – Librarians Set to Battle HarperCollins

February 28, 2011 //

From LISNews: Librarian News:

Library users, librarians, and libraries have begun to boycott publisher HarperCollins over changes to the terms of service that would limit the ability of library users to borrow ebooks from libraries. A new website, BoycottHarperCollins.com, is helping to organize their efforts to get HarperCollins to return to the previous terms of service.

On February 24, Steve Potash, the Chief Executive Officer of OverDrive, sent an email to the company’s customers — primarily US libraries — announcing that some of the ebooks they get from OverDrive would be disabled after they had circulated 26 times. Soon after, librarians learned that it was HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corporation (NWSA), that intended to impose these limits.
Immediately, library users, librarians, and libraries began voicing their opposition to the plan by HarperCollins, with several library users and librarians urging a boycott.[full article]

26 times? I think the days of touting the freedom and ease of access of eBooks via libraries are coming to a middle. The recent excitement over rising eBook usage glosses over the implications of events like Kindle’s Orwellian muck-up a year or so ago.

A face-off with a vendor has been brewing for a while, and more are sure to follow.

EBook providers are going to switch to increasingly intransigent and limiting terms because they sense threats to their profits from other directions, such as piracy. Frustratingly, HarperCollins’ policy and others like it will slowly throttle a library’s ability to supply eBooks conveniently (for the user and the library) and affordably (for the library).

If eReaders continue to boom, and they likely will, people could choose to absorb the cost of eBooks themselves for the sake of quick access. This is unfortunately probable, since people who can afford an eReader of any sort can likely afford the cost of compatible books (related demographic info).

The outcome could be rough. Libraries will eventually loose any iniative  they’ve gained on this front and could be pushed out as an eBook access point. And, as new technology eventually surpasses print, public libraries could end up standing on a fairly bleak precipice.

Enough, doom saying. The collective weight of librarians, library users, and other supporters could roll this trend back. Visit www.boycottharpercollins.com and get involved.

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Categories Book News, Library News, Public Libraries, Technology, User experience

Libraries Under Siege! Some Fiscal Light in the Budget Tunnel

February 16, 2011 //

A reason as good as any

I’ve written about Floridian public libraries and the looming threat to their funding before. Recently, they’ve had cause to breathe a little easier.

From Jasksonville’s Florida Times-Union:

While Gov. Rick Scott axed state funding for a host of programs when penning his budget, nearly $22 million set aside for Florida libraries remained untouched.

It is still early in the process, but the budgetary tea leaves now read better for library officials than many others who rely on state funding.

“I would have to think that it is good news that the governor chose not to cut the funding,” said Barbara Gubbin, director of the Jacksonville Public Libraries. [full article]

Ummm… you think? What a quote. Another conspicuous quote is missing, though.

One reason Scott may have held library funding steady is because a decrease would have affected $9 million in federal matching dollars…

It’s unclear why Scott did not cut library funding, or what role the federal match dollars played in his decision. Scott’s office did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.

It would have been nice if the good governor had gone out on a limb and supported the libraries he was saving . Insted, he had his office cloak it in some baroque funding shell game. I guess libraries shouldn’t hold out for uneqivocal support from politicians.  

Gubbin says at the end of the article, “We have faced cuts before, and kept it in there. We know how to work the system.” Right on! Gubbin’s attitude is great. Touchy-feely appeals to the inherent value libraries are not enough.

Help is out there, too, at SaveLibraries.org. They’re blogging, collecting resources, and otherwise tweeting the 2011 world of Libraries Under Siege.

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Categories Library News, Public Libraries

Libraries Under Siege! Pictures Worth Cash… Hopefully

January 24, 2011 //

save out library please

Faced with hard cuts from state funding, Floridian public libraries are making a dramatic effort to prove their worth to their communities.

The libraries are taking part in a statewide event, Snapshot: A Day in the Life of Florida Libraries, coordinated by the Florida Library Association. Other states have conducted similar programs but this is the first one in Florida, said Faye Roberts, the FLA’s executive director.
Libraries will gather statistics on customer usage, take photos of activities and collect comments from patrons. Roberts said her organization will use the results to remind elected officials of the importance of adequate funding for libraries.[Full article here]

This is a great. It has got every piece necessary to give a human side to what’s at risk when cuts to libraries are made.

And, if the most hard-hearted budgetary wonk’s heart won’t melt, they’ve got some numbers to help them:

Faye Roberts cited a recent study that found that libraries have an economic impact of $8.30 in public services for every $1 invested in them.

Is this enough?

When so many demands on state/provincial, municipal, and federal funding compete, public libraries need to show system-wide thinking to find ways to prove their worth. It’s a frustrating cause in the US, where state and municipal budgets are bound by law to not run a deficit.

The outcome is all too often lose-lose… which sucks.

Efforts like the Florida Library Association’s are what’s called for.But, libraries should not wait for Mr. Big Cuts to come knocking. I think most libraries should have something like this ongoing and in their back pockets. Now’s the time. Rally the staff! Rally the users!

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Categories Public Libraries, Services, User experience

Library Fine$: How $hould we pay to play?

January 20, 2011 //

Have you returned your library books

Yesterday, I paid my overdue fines. I’ll be honest. It was a lot. It was enough to warrant the kindness of the staffer who graciously did not say aloud what I owed.

It’s not that the Ottawa Public Library’s fines are too high. They are, from what I can tell, on average. Some libraries, like the Chicago PL charge less. That’s not the point.

I don’t want to do away with fines, as some people would argue. But, is there another way? Read the rest of this entry »

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Categories Public Libraries, User experience
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