Atzblog
Joe Atzberger is a library hacker in Columbus, Ohio. This blog focuses on libraries, code, metadata and general geekery.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Corrections: boycott or not?
Thursday, March 17, 2011
This message will be this message.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
New OverDrive DRM terms: "This message will self-destruct"
To provide you with the best options, we have been required to accept and accommodate new terms for eBook lending as established by certain publishers. Next week, OverDrive will communicate a licensing change from a publisher that, while still operating under the one-copy/one-user model, will include a checkout limit for each eBook licensed. Under this publisher’s requirement, for every new eBook licensed, the library (and the OverDrive platform) will make the eBook available to one customer at a time until the total number of permitted checkouts is reached. This eBook lending condition will be required of all eBook vendors or distributors offering this publisher’s titles for library lending (not just OverDrive).The previous model already forced libraries to pretend a digital "copy" was a single physical thing. Only one library's user can have it "checked out" at a time. And only on one device. The clearly misapplied language around this tells you what a terrible idea it is. To be clear, this model eliminates almost all the major advantages of the item's being digital, without restoring the permanence, durability, vendor-independence, technology-neutrality, portability, transferability, and ownership associated with the physical version.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
CatalystIT publish Android mobile client for Koha
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Borders store closings
Bigtime Bookseller Hits the Wall
Borders Books, once on the cutting edge of inventory control and large format retail, is now bankrupt:
http://www.annarbor.com/business-review/borders-bankruptcy-ann-arbor-books/
It’s easy to understand why, since they owe literally a BILLION dollars a year on rent.
Google and Wikipedia replace textbooks
A study in
http://ebooksconsidered.blogspot.com/2011/02/etextbooks.html
This suggests a severe disadvantage to publishers since both texts and eBooks cost money, are less convenient, etc. Arguably Google and Wikipedia are updated more frequently, too.