OverDrive buyout proposal makes LibraryJournal.com: ‘Not such a crazy idea,’ says DPLA’s John Palfrey

Although I’m still gung ho about the Digital Public Library of America, I retain some of the concerns arising in a recent MIT Technology Review article.

For example, how can we  reconcile the DPLA’s various goals and serve academic and public library patrons, whose needs and interests may differ sharply? One strategy would be for public libraries, or a related nonprofit, maybe even the DPLA or a successor, to be able to buy the OverDrive distribution service, which reaches “more than 15,000 libraries, schools, and colleges worldwide.” Talk up the idea well—always easier to do when a service and urgent needs already exist, as is true with OverDrive—and appropriate donors just might materialize.

Now LibraryJournal.com has just published my latest thoughts on the topic, in addition to the past suggestion that OverDrive people stay on in at least advisory roles to help assure continuation of  contracts with major publishers of popular content, plus a transition smooth in other ways. Most of the ongoing revenue could come from OverDrive’s current library customers, except that now libraries would enjoy more direct control over their electronic sides. The reinvented OverDrive could pick up content and technology from the DPLA or others; at least as I myself see it, the related infrastructure could be shared by separate but intertwined public and academic systems building on the nonprofit’s existing work.

To his considerable credit, John Palfrey, chair of the DPLA steering committee, has kept an open mind about the basic concept of the OverDrive purchase (even if he and I disagree on such details as separate systems): ”Not such a crazy idea.” And in the LJ piece as well as in commentary on this site, I’ve explained why OverDrive’s owners might sell if the price were right—not merely for patriotic reasons but also for business ones, given all the new competition in the library e-book niches. Fingers crossed. Remember, at least for now, OverDrive is still the leader, and a sellout to libraries or a related nonprofit would bring the organization closer to its uses and increase the chances of this predominance continuing. Continue reading »

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Why a bestselling writer would be an excellent addition to the steering committee of the Harvard-hosted Digital Public Library of America

imageimageLike it or not, a lot more public library patrons care about bestsellers and other commercial books than about academic works.

Frustratingly, the Harvard-hosted Digital Public Library of America has no commercial writer or other nonacademic content provider on its 17-member steering committee. Nick Taylor, a prominent member of the Authors Guild, is wondering about writerly participation, and I don’t blame him. I raised a similar question in a Baltimore Sun article.

imageGranted, writers can be overzealous in trying to protect their interests, and I myself abhor such author-encouraged horrors as the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act and Draconian DRM

But maybe with writers and other content providers more involved in the DPLA, it could more quickly understand the needs of originators of popular content and come up with mutually beneficial solutions. Not to mention the publicity benefits.

So the DPLA could do worse than to enlist Stephen King and John Grisham and Stephenie Meyer (who has more than a few insights into the tastes of young readers) as allies and advocates. For time reason, none of the above might be able to sit on the steering committee, but they could at least function as advisors and encourage another well-known author or publisher to serve.

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Library Journal staffer and publishing gurus aid the cause of two well-stocked national digital library systems—whether or not that’s their intent

imageLibrary Journal’s Heather McCormack and book industry guru Brian O’Leary may or may not want two well-stocked national digital library systems for the U.S. I don’t know.

A second publishing maven, Mike Shatzkin, has been skeptical about the basic national digital library idea.

But accidentally or not, all three have recently buttressed the case, especially if we create separate public and academic systems. Perhaps someday a smart guy like Mike can push the national digital library concept for real; imagine the billions in extra revenue this could mean for publishers. The publishing industry already is a ward of D.C. politicians in a sense, given the business’s heavy reliance on widely hated copyright laws that erode civil liberties and weaken America’s libraries and the Net; and Washington may actually make the laws more offensive.

Now, from my own national digital library perspective, not necessarily those of the authors of the three earlier commentaries, here is some analysis of the trio’s separate writings.

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With so many U.S. kids in poverty, a national digital library and hardware program could be a godsend for children’s e-book publishers

imageLibraryCity has posted a number of items mentioning e-books and family literacy—for example, The nuts and bolts of using tablet computers, e-libraries, and family literacy initiatives to encourage young children to read.

Now comes a gem of a post from Jeremy Greenfield: When Growth in Children’s E-Books Hits the Poverty Line.

Greenfield didn’t mention a national digital library system, which I’ve been advocating for the past two decades, most recently in the Baltimore Sun. But as I see it, this is a great Exhibit A. Here are some statistics that Greenfield picked up for Digital Book World, of which he’s editorial director:

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Harry Potter e-books, OverDrive, the DPLA, Amazon, other topics come up in Bibliotech interview with me

imageThe Bibliotech podcast, based in Ontario, has just posted a two-hour audio interview with me on topics ranging from Harry Potter e-books to OverDrive, the Digital Public Library of America, Library Renewal, and Amazon.

Many thanks to Kayhan B, Erin Anderson and Doug Mirams for all the time they put into their super-thoughtful questions. I also appreciated the lowdown on Ontario’s e-libraries scene, including fiscal challenges. One more reason for libraries to reduce middleman costs!

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How Library Renewal and the DPLA could cooperate toward two good national digital library systems—public and academic

imageBeen there. Done that. Some years ago I cofounded a noncommercial startup called LibraryCity—the same name as this Web site—to try to get millions of books online.

We ran into a little complication: Google’s book side blew us away. LibraryCity did prod the International Digital Publishing Forum into getting serious about e-book standards, by way of ePub. But as small-fry, not wired into the worlds of the super-rich, big business, foundations, and national politics, we lacked the clout to promulgate our own standards and build the digital library.

imageNow another grassroots startup, Library Renewal, led by Michael “Library Man” Porter, wants to create a library system online to give libraries a better deal than OverDrive is. I wish Michael all kinds of luck, and meanwhile here is my advice. Keep plugging away, but don’t do it without cooperating closely with the Harvard-hosted Digital Public Library of America on a common infrastructure, and share lots of content in both directions. Library Renewal and other public library organizations could still have their own system focused on the community library needs online and offline, while the DPLA or a spin-off concentrated on an academic system.

imageHere are a few other talking-and-thinking points for both Michael and John Palfrey (photo), his DPLA counterpart—timely concerns right now. Leaders from both are at the Public Library Association gathering in Philadelphia. If they don’t meet there, I hope they’ll connect via phone and the Net and meanwhile ponder such matters as:

1. The need to avoid the wrong kind of entrepreneurial zeal. One reason Michael isn’t cooperating closely with the DPLA is that he feared he and colleagues would have to sign over their work to Harvard. I don’t know all the details. But both groups should think as little as possible in proprietary terms about ideas and technology, while still giving conspicuous credit through personal and organizational mentions. Whatever the case, try not to replicate Silicon Valley’s ego-and-tech wars. I love the DPLA’s goal of keeping code and metadata and other technology open and hope that this approach will persist. Will Library Renewal make the same commitment?

No, not necessarily.

Please note that the right kind of entrepreneurial spirit could help immensely—see LibraryCity’s post headlined Toward an e-library ecosystem: Public libraries will screw themselves if they don’t learn from Amazon’s comprehensive “seamless approach.” That was, of course, a response to the famous “Libraries are screwed” comments of Eli Neiburger, a Library Renewal board member. No, they needn’t be! Libraries are about much more than just books, but they’re the main brand, and I even want libraries to remain in the bestseller business: nurture writers, hire experienced editors, and grow your own hits! I also want libraries to come up with apps and technical standards that will help people with different e-reading devices synchronize “last-page read” and the rest as smoothly as the Kindle does. Commercial in some ways? Yes. But not obnoxiously so. And the commerce would be just a means, a helpful revenue stream, not the reason to exist.

Furthermore, there should still be a place for for-profit bookstores and publishers. I’d love to see the library system—simply by serving America’s e-libraries and patrons—help publishers significantly grow revenue. Respect healthy diversity, not just of content but of business models!

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Attn. DPLA! Pay attention to Colorado and California e-library bypasses of OverDrive and consider your own distribution as much as possible

imageNo secret. LibraryCity wants libraries to take over OverDrive and slash middleman costs. And here’s a great twist—partial inspiration for this already exists.

Douglas County Libraries in Colorado is dealing directly with some publishers. The system applies its own Adobe DRM even though OverDrive books are also still available for now (this isn’t a complete bypass). And hundreds of libraries in California will be experimenting with going direct, according to TheDigitalShift. Kudos to the Califa Group, the nonprofit library cooperative that made this possible.

Laudably these topics will come up during the Public Library Association’s gathering convention that began in Philadelphia today.

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Help! The library world STILL needs a free and open blog editor as good as Microsoft’s proprietary Live Writer

imageA few months ago I begged the open source community and backers of the Digital Public Library of America to give high priority to a FLOSS blog editor as good as Microsoft’s Windows Live Writer. No such luck despite all the DPLA’s rhetoric about the need for “generativity.”

This is painful. It’s the main reason why I am now spending a good part of my time in Windows rather than Ubuntu (second screen shot), which I prefer for its greater stability and other attributes. Live Writer is obnoxiously Wine-proof.

imageI thought I could wipe Windows off my main system and stick with Ubuntu. But I’ve been forced to revert, simply in the interest of sheer productivity. My needs are different from those of the programmers and other hardcore techies. One famous coder recently said he doesn’t worry that much about aesthetics but people still read him. Well, yes. But how about the rest of us?

Look, in Live Writer terms, it isn’t as if I’m asking for so much. I’d simply like to be able to copy a photo from a Web browser like Firefox and effortlessly paste it into the editor with which I compose for WordPress.

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LibraryCity’s Baltimore Sun commentary on digital libraries: Will the New York Times’s Friedman and other pundits connect the dots?

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman—photo below—has written a column headlined Pass the Books. Hold the Oil.

As the Public Library Association prepares to meet March 13-17, I’d hope that LibraryCity’s Baltimore Sun commentary would be of interest to him. Same for other articles appearing in the Chronicle of Higher Education and elsewhere. Here’s the start of the Sun article:

imageThere are already tens of millions of e-book lovers, and their ranks are sure to be boosted by the new iPad unveiled last week — along with improved Kindles, Nooks and their rivals.

My sister, the retired fourth-grade teacher, has finally succumbed; Dorothy reads faster by enlarging the words on her tablet. And my wife favors e-books when she stretches out in bed. Clearly, the time has come for a well-stocked national digital library system, not to replace brick-and-mortar libraries but to augment them.

In the 1990s, William F. Buckley Jr. — my political opposite — wrote two columns supporting my basic vision. He even recommended it to Newt Gingrich. But years later, we still lack a coherent national e-library strategy. (As of 2 p.m. Friday, 236 patrons of Maryland’s Digital eLibary Consortium were waiting for 33 copies of "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel. In this case, because of legal restrictions and related technical precautions, a digital copy is just like a paper copy — only one library patron can read it at a time.) […]

I’m still as gung ho as ever about the potential of the Digital Public Library of America and hope that the Sun commentary will help nudge the DPLA in the right direction and also encourage the White House to care more about the digital library issue. The DPLA has its flaws but has made considerable progress since I first started writing about it. Check out the Wiki proposing an e-book reader that ideally would be Kindle-easy and at the same time offer advanced features for scholars.

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OverDrive gets loan of up to $1M from Ohio county with budget-challenged libraries: Taxpayers unwittingly encouraging online privatization of U.S. library system?

Related: More bargaining power via OverDrive bypasses?

In recent years, the cash-strapped public libraries in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, have resorted to such economy measures as staff layoffs, trim-backs of branch hours, vexingly higher fines, longer waits for books, and, of course, reductions in acquired titles. The state of Ohio hasn’t boomed, either. Maybe the economy will brighten now in the Cleveland area and elsewhere in the state, but I doubt that libraries and other government services there are out of the woods yet.

Why, then, has Cuyahoga loaned OverDrive up to $1M to build a $5-million-plus "global headquarters" on a 12-acre campus, with two indoor basketball courts and a pond, and why has the county granted OverDrive a ten-year tax exemption, while the state has also served up other goodies such as $484,000 in tax credits?

imageDocuments from the city of Garfield Heights and Cuyahoga County (here, here, here, here, here, and here), linked from Meredith Schwartz’s Library Journal piece and Gary Price’s Infodocket blog, supply the official answer along other other details. The J word. Jobs. Hoped-for tax revenue. Fear that hundreds of jobs would go to Florida instead when OverDrive relocated from the city of Cleveland.

But isn’t it possible that the people of Cuyahoga County could enjoy a much better investment return simply by spending more money on the local library system there, on which so many county residents rely to upgrade their knowledge and skills? Shouldn’t K-12 education and the quality of the workforce count as much as OverDrive’s basketball courts? The Cuyahoga library system, which serves 47 localities in the Cleveland area, "leads the nation in per capita circulation, visits, program attendance and computer use in the big library category" in listings in Library Journal for the second consecutive year," said Cleveland.com in November 2011. Long-term stimulus possibilities where they’re most useful and needed? Better bets than OverDrive? I think so. While the Cuyahoga library system is “a separate political subdivision” from the main county government, we’re still talking about the same suburban voters. Property owners already feel stretched to the max, and beyond that, keep in mind that all Ohio taxpayers are bearing the costs of OverDrive’s state-provided benefits. Furthermore, the Cleveland Public Library, serving Cleveland, seat of Cuyahoga County, is hardly swimming in surplus cash. Last I knew this library, too, was in the state of Ohio.

I remain gung ho on a foundation or philanthropist paying a fair price for OverDrive to be the start of a well-stocked national digital library system, and I want to see CEO Steve Potash and his people treated with complete respect and kept on as advisors in the interest of a smooth transition. That’s different, though, from pampering by state and local governments, whether or not the big offenders here might be overeager politicians as opposed to OverDrive itself (just doing what comes naturally, given the chance).

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While U.S. library leaders dilly-dally, OverDrive breaks ground for its own world digital library in Garfield Heights, Ohio

imageOverDrive, the main distributor of commercial e-books for America’s public libraries and probably others in the English-speaking world, will build a “world headquarters” in Garfield Heights, Ohio—complete with a 12-acre campus for 300 employees in 95,000 square feet of office space.

“OverDrive’s new ‘green’ Blue Sky Campus,” says the announcement of the ground-breaking, “will include over five acres of open space dedicated to outdoor use, including extended outdoor meeting space, a small pond and a 0.3-mile walking path.”

imageSo what does this mean in terms of LibraryCity’s recommedation—that America’s libraries buy OverDrive, directly or via a nonprofit run on their behalf? Cuts two ways. Obviously OverDrive was not intending to sell itself. But plans for that 12-acre campus were probably long in the works before LibraryCity started broaching the purchase issue, and I still at least hope that OverDrive’s executives will do the right thing, now that they know what’s at stake. A little patriotism, please, from CEO Steve Potash (photo) and others. And compassion, too.

Steve, read this MetaFilter item about the almost-Dickensian conditions for some library patrons, and also consider the rich-vs.-poor conflicts that OverDrive e-books are creating in Rockford, Illinois.

The economies of affordable e-books, combined with actions on such access issues as hardware and connectivity, could help libraries better serve the people who most needed them. Privatizing our public libraries, slowly or instantly, directly or indirectly, is not the answer.

For now, here are few matters for both OverDrive and libraries in the U.S.  and elsewhere to ponder:

1. All the brick-and-mortar and green campuses in the world will not remove the uncertainties of technology and of competition and potential competition from Amazon, Google, 3M and the rest. By being a real part of a real national digital public library system, OverDrive would enjoy countless advantages over other organizations. If libraries bought OverDrive they could either stop the construction and sell off the complex—or choose to keep it. Whatever made sense. I myself favor frugality right now, but will keep an open mind.

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Hello, ALA? Open-mindedness and an e-book ecosystem would be the best responses to prices increases from Random House—and other challenges

imageI’ve warned libraries they’ve got too little to bargain with. Publishers have the upper hand despite the sales that libraries can drum up through exposure of titles from various houses. Notice that most of the biggest publishers have backed off from the public library scene—and now Random House has jacked up e-book prices as much as 300 percent?

The best solution for libraries in their relations with publishers? A mix of carrots and sticks. Specifics:

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