Cushing Academy Library eliminated its huge book collection in 2009, turning that library into an all-digital facility. Other schools have chosen different ways to meld cutting edge technology into traditional book collections, including the Learning Commons model. Speakers will discuss how administrations were involved in these changes on their campuses, and consider broader questions for the school libraries: how can schools best consider the balance of digital and print resources for the most successful student achievement.

1. Frances Jacobson Harris
Librarian, University Laboratory High School
Urbana, IL
francey@illinois.edu

2. How will these discussions look in hindsight?
“Through the joint cooperation of the University High
School and the University of Illinois Library, the library
how has a practically unused, soft rolled 1949 14” carriage
L. C. Smith typewriter with the necessary changes in
keys and platen to serve our needs. The replacement
came just in time, as the 1937 model we were using
refused to function the week after its replacement
arrived.”
1951-1952 Uni High Library Annual Report

4.  We’ve been there before
 VHS vs. Betamax
 Vinyl => Tape => CD => Digital file
 Common issues: Platform, copyright, ownership,
sharing, management, pricing, marketing, delivery…
 But this is BIG
 A genuine paradigm shift
 Changes in reading, yes, but also – teaching, learning,
thinking

5.  Corporate ethos vs. library ethos
 Purchasing vs. licensing
 Use by many vs. use by one
 The library market didn’t start out as the target market
See Buffy Hamilton’s blog post, Why We Won’t Purchase
More Kindles at the Unquiet Library

6. “Now, Overdrive is quite good. But having one vendor
become the gateway to e-books for libraries is probably not
the best thing, at least not for libraries. What I want, and
what we find libraries want, is to buy e-books. And when I say
"buy," I mean like we buy print books. We write a check, and
in return we get a copy that we can preserve long-term and
lend out to one patron at a time. But so far, we're finding that
a lot of publishers get confused when we talk to them about
buying e-books. We'll say, "We want to buy your e-books, how
much money do you want?" They'll say, "What do you mean
‘buy'?" It seems weird to have to explain what "buy"
means, but we've all grown so accustomed to having digital
transactions be accompanied by a 20-page license
agreement.”
Brewster Kahle, Publisher’s Weekly, May 30, 2011

7. “My biggest fear is that libraries will become customer
service departments for a few large corporations. That
publishers will become less and less interesting, and that
a shift toward central points of control will undermine
the major lesson from the Enlightenment, which is to
encourage open, public, intellectual discourse.”
Brewster Kahle, Publisher’s Weekly, May 30, 2011

8. “I think it is absolutely critical that we continue to
develop a distributed system for e-books that is open
and standards-based.”
“We can have many publishers, many booksellers, many
libraries, many authors, and many, many readers, with
no central points of control coming between them, just
capitalism. Books are simply too important to have
either a monopoly or duopoly evolve.”
Brewster Kahle, Publisher’s Weekly, May 30, 2011

9.  How many steps does it take to download an ebook?
See the Richland County Public Library video guide
 Discoverability
 Catalog?
 Pathfinder tools?
We’re just not there yet

12. It’s not necessarily about balance
 Your setting, your needs, your clientele
 Nature of the source
 Can you call your own shots?
 Findability, findability, findability

14. Making sure “complimentary online access”
to the printed content of a purchased
reference set is visible in the online catalog
-
Response from Tech Support:
“I created a ticket in OTRS to have the
books added to the orr. Please allow more
time.”

15.  Every reader his or her “book” (Ranganathan)
 Precludes single vendor, single source solutions
 Curation and discovery
 Helping people find what they would never otherwise
find, or even know about

18.  Can they monitor what you’re reading?
 Is the device ONLY compatible with books purchased from
an associated eBook store?
 Can they keep track of book searches?
 Can they keep track of book purchases?
 With whom can they share the information collected in
non-aggregated form?
 Can they share information outside the company without
the customer's consent?
 Do they lack mechanisms for customers to
access, correct, or delete the information?
Electronic Frontier Foundation

20. Albanese, Andrew Richard. May 30, 2011. “Brewster's
Millions: ALA Preview 2011.” Publisher’s Weekly
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/trade-shows-
events/article/47448-brewster-s-millions-ala-preview-2011.html
Electronic Frontier Foundation. January 6, 2010. Updated and Corrected: E-Book Buyer’s
Guide to Privacy. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/01/updated-and-corrected-e-
book-buyers-guide-privacy
Carolyn Starkey’s and Wendy Stephen’s LiveBinder “eBooks and eReaders go to School” at
http://livebinders.com/play/play/69250
Richland County Public Library. April 21, 2011. Download and Authorize Adobe Digital
Editions. http://youtu.be/0eKCZcsVwpQ