Tag Archives: Rockford library

Amazon – IPG battle shows need for libraries to buy OverDrive and control their own destinies

More than 4,400 e-books—from the Independent Publishers Group—have vanished from the Amazon site. Why? Pressured by Wall Street, Amazon wants to jack up its profits at IPG’s expense while still keeping e-book prices low enough to entice people to buy Kindles. If Amazon succeeds with IPG, then Jeff Bezos and friends will move on to [...]

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Penguin ditches OverDrive’s public library side: Another reason for libraries to take over the distributor and gain more clout

Of interest from TeleRead: Penguin continues its anti-ebook-library crusade—restricts downloads to usb-only. One of the giants of the book trade has unwittingly reinforced LibraryCity‘s argument that public libraries or a nonprofit should buy the OverDrive distribution service. Penguin said it would stop selling new books to OverDrive‘s library side. In another OverDrive-related development, former librarian Andrew [...]

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Smug about OverDrive? A whopping 39 percent of U.S. public libraries don’t offer downloadable e-books. Does D.C. care? E-textbooks are no substitute, Mr. President

Hundreds and hundreds of visitors have read LibraryCity‘s proposal for the sale of OverDrive to public libraries or a related nonprofit. The idea drew favorable reaction from Thad McIlroy, a prominent publishing consultant, and it even made an ALA newsletter and Reddit. Still not convinced of the possibilities? Well, consider that 39 percent of U.S. public libraries [...]

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An e-smart family literacy approach for Rockford, Illinois? Back to the future?

Could children be better readers if we went “back to the future,” even in the era of e-books and calls for massive budget calls? I’ll share thoughts. But first let’s hear from Andy Strong, a children’s librarian at the library in Rockford, Illinois, during the 1990s: “When the library cut its hours, it drastically reduced storytime [...]

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Coming: More ideas on mitigating Rockford’s e-book mess and other cities’

Update: The follow-up was Should OverDrive sell itself to America’s public libraries? I’m not done yet. Rockford, Illinois, is a depressing but oh-so-useful example of America’s e-book crisis—and of the risk that it could pit the well-off and the cash-strapped against each other. Later today or tomorrow I’ll offer detailed ideas far beyond yesterday’s. On [...]

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