Jumping on the DRM free bandwagon

If you’re a consumer of ebooks, you’ll be pleased to know that some publishers are now ditching DRM (Digital Rights Management) on their books.

The Tor online store proudly displays its intent to go DRM free

Tor/Forge Books in the US and Momentum (an imprint of Australia’s Pan Macmillan), have both recently announced that they no longer intend to restrict the use of their ebooks using DRM.

‘The problem,’ said Joel Naoum, Momentum’s publisher, ‘is that DRM restricts users from legitimate copying – such as between different e-reading devices. We feel strongly that Momentum’s goal is to make books as accessible as possible. Dropping these restrictions is in line with that goal.’

Speaking at Tor/Forge Books announcement, Charles Stross noted that

[restricting a consumer's use of their purchase] “is at the heart of customer resentment against DRM: once you buy a hardback you are free to do whatever you like with it — read it, lend it, or sell it on…but…DRM e-Books don’t work like that.”

Tor/Forge plans to begin selling DRM free ebooks by July, Momentum by early August 2012.

National Simultaneous Storytime

There are lots of events happening as part of Library & Information Week and tomorrow is National Simultaneous Storytime. This year’s title is The very cranky bear by Nick Bland. ALIA have a range of resources on their website to support NSS, including the AUSLAN version (below) of the story being read. If you’d like to get involved, you can find your nearest storytime location in the Australia wide list here.

Secure your library

How secure is your library? It’s not something you might normally pay a lot of attention to in your work during the day, but the good folks over at American Libraries have roped in Warren Graham, author of The black belt librarian : real-world safety & security, to give some pointers about security in the library. Whether you want to make sure your collection items or personal belongings are safe or to ensure your own personal safety or that of your patrons, Warren Graham is on the case.

Some of my favourite tips from Graham include:

• Bathrooms should be where staff can see people entering, not in vestibules. Bathrooms may become a spot for drug dealing or worse when doors are not visible to staff. Even better, design bathrooms with open entries.
• Teen areas should be supervised and open to view. Unwatched teens will get rowdy.
• “Watch nooks and crannies.” That’s where experienced criminals go every time, he said.

For good measure, you might also want to:

• Keep your building clean. Trashy buildings attract trashy characters.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina in strife

Librarians at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina are protesting over the alleged corruption of director Ismail Serageldin. How much fire lies behind the smoke?

http://www.theglobalmail.org/feature/the-angry-librarians-of-alexandria/123/

Happy Library Lovers Day!

May you all find lovely things at your library this Library Lovers Day.

Library Lovers Day

And don’t forget to get involved with the National Year of Reading which will also be launched today at the National Library of Australia. There are lots of things that you can get involved with right around the country – don’t miss out!

Want to know more about the VIAF?

The Virtual International Authority File (VIAF) is a pretty handy resource for comparing authority data from multiple international sources. A recent webinar “show and tell” highlights how some of VIAF’s current users are making the most of the data available. If you’re interested, the recording – which goes for just over an hour – of the webinar is freely available from OCLC and iTunes. The accompanying slides are also available.

2012 National Year of Reading – ACT Ambassadors announced

Canberrans from all walks of life are already getting excited about 2012′s National Year of Reading – and who could blame them? Libraries ACT recently revealed the ambassadors for the ACT, which includes politicians (Chief Minister Katy Gallagher, Simon Corbell and Kate Lundy), authors (Jackie French, Marion Halligan), people in the media (Louise Maher, Mark Carmody) and a host of sportspeople, including the entirety of the Canberra Roller Derby League who had the following to say:

Any future derby girl or referee worth their skates has to first cut their teeth on 35 pages of essential rules reading before they can even think about hitting the flat track. At CRDL we believe that reading is one of the most enjoyable and essential skills for children and adults to learn, love and embrace.

Ambassadors from the Canberra Roller Derby League with ACT Chief Minister Katy Gallagher via Libraries ACT on Flickr (for bonus points, pick which Roller Girl is also a librarian!)

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Make sure you check out the full list of national and state ambassadors and get involved with your local community in 2012 to spread the love of reading!

Oh Christmas tree

What to do with those pesky duplicate books that have been weeded from collection? Before you donate them to charity, or another worthy community organisation, perhaps you could indulge in a bit of Christmas spirit like the good library folk in the Department of Special Collections University Library, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Poland, and make your very own Christmas tree.

Library Christmas tree

The full instructions are available in Polish here (and easily translatable via your favourite online translator), along with a few videos of the construction.

 

From bad to worse

The UK National Literacy Trust have just put out a report that reveals some worrying statistics.The findings of the report, The gift of reading in 2011 : children and young people’s access to books and attitudes towards reading, note the worrying trend that:

the number of children who do not own a book is increasing. Seven years ago 1 child in 10 did not have a book of their own while today the figure stands at a startling 1 child in 3.

The figure of 1 in 3 UK children without a book of their own equates to approximately 3.8 million children.

The findings of the study suggest a clear linkage between a child’s reading ability and receiving and owning books of their own but, alarmingly,

about a fifth of children [surveyed] said they had never been to a book shop or a library.

I suppose it’s not too surprising given the high number of UK library closures and the current state of the publishing industry, but it certainly is sobering.

The National Literacy Trust is currently raising money to purchase books for disadvantaged (bookless!) children. You can support their efforts by donating online and receiving a lovely children’s book illustrator’s Christmas card in return. You could also buy someone small you know a book for Christmas.

How do you search?

Are you getting the most out of your searching? Mashable points out a few things that librarians have been telling their information literacy students for years on how to find what you really want, using the search giant Google as its search platform of choice. Need to find that needle in a haystack? You’re on!

How to use Google search more effectively via Mashable

Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart

The newly opened Mailänder Platz branch of the Stadtbibliothek Stuttgart is a wonder to behold. From the outside, some have described it as a jail, the stark exterior barely hinting at the treasures that lie within. On the inside, the endless stairs, and just a glimpse of sky above, might have you agreeing with the jail analogy.

Endless stairs inside the bibliothek, via The Coolist

But look closer, and you’ll soon see that this space is more than the sum of its utilitarian parts. A modern white interior plays backdrop to the colourful spines of thousands of books, couches on every level beckon you to sit and read, and there’s plenty of space for the kids and to listen to music.

Just add people and books and what a difference! Image via The Coolist

You can take a virtual look around the new space via one of Oliver Wendel‘s amazing panoramas of the main library space and the “heart” of the building, and get a sense of the excitement of opening night via the library’s Flickr set or  in Karl-Stefan Röser‘s video.

 

School library trends

Have you been keeping up to date with what’s new and happening in school libraries and what lies on the horizon?

School libraries: what's now, what's next, what's yet to come

Edited by Kristin Fontichiaro and Buffy Hamilton, School libraries: what’s now, what’s next, what’s yet to come offers a collection of over 100 crowdsourced essays from a mix of librarians, teachers, publishers and library vendors and covers a range of issues relating to school libraries such as learners, literacy, gaming, reading, physical and virtual library spaces and collection development. This free e-book is available as an HTML webpage and in Epub, Kindle and PDF formats.

One to watch

Dr. Alex Byrne, former University Librarian at UTS and now current State Librarian & Chief Executive of New South Wales State Library, has an “occasional blog” which should be worth keeping an eye on. The blog promises to cover Dr. Byrne’s experiences in “taking up the leadership of the State Library of New South Wales and other experiences in the world of memory institutions.” He’s only been on the job a week and a half – which explains why his picture is so far lacking from the Executive page on the State Library’s website – and why the blog is a bit thin on the ground at the moment but hopefully we’ll see some interesting tidbits emerge in the near future.

National Library of Australia joins the Commons on Flickr

Well, it’s taken a while but the National Library of Australia has finally started adding material from their collection to the Flickr Commons. Considering how large a collection of material the NLA holds, it seems only logical that they would want to make their holdings even more widely available than they currently are. The NLA is clearly working to continue to increase the exposure of their collection items, especially with the impending opening of their permanent Treasures Gallery.

Cross promotion aside, there NLA’s stream so far highlights a diverse range of images, including images from the Ballets Russes Australian tour 1936-1940, the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, flooding in the Murray Darling region in 1886 and images from Antarctic expeditions between 1911 and 1914.

 

 

 

 

 

As with many of the images in the Commons, there are a fair few in the NLA’s stream which show unidentified people – if you know who they are, don’t be afraid to comment and help clear up the mystery!

Has the HathiTrust gone too far?

That is, indeed, the question being posed in the latest court case to be tabled in New York. Along with the US Authors Guild, the Australian Society of Authors, the Union Des Écrivaines et des Écrivains Québécois (UNEQ) and 8 individual authors have submitted a copyright infringement case against the HathiTrust (a partnership of over 50 predominantly university libraries), the University of Michigan, the University of California, the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, and Cornell University. The case asserts that the partners of the HathiTrust:

… obtained from Google unauthorized scans of an estimated 7 million copyright-protected books, the rights to which are held by authors in dozens of countries. The universities have pooled the unauthorized files in a repository organized by the University of Michigan called HathiTrust.

The plaintiffs further assert that the HathiTrust partners’ intention to make available copies of in-copyright works that they have deemed to be orphan works oversteps the boundaries of copyright law. The plaintiffs seem to be arguing against that the HathiTrust’s understanding and determination of what constitutes an orphan work and, thus, what can be done with such works as a result. (The Association of Research Libraries has responded by compiling a useful run down of some of the issues relating to orphan works which makes things a bit clearer.) At present, copyright law seems to be lagging woefully behind when it comes to dealing with digital, or digitised, works.

“This is an upsetting and outrageous attempt to dismiss authors’ rights,” said Angelo Loukakis, executive director of the Australian Society of Authors. “Maybe it doesn’t seem like it to some, but writing books is an author’s real-life work and livelihood. This group of American universities has no authority to decide whether, when or how authors forfeit their copyright protection. These aren’t orphaned books, they’re abducted books.”

The language used by the plaintiffs involved in the case is very emotional which, I suppose, is understandable given that use of copyright material impacts on an author’s ability to receive appropriate income from their works.

“I was stunned when I learned of this,” said Danièle Simpson, president of UNEQ. “How are authors from Quebec, Italy or Japan to know that their works have been determined to be ‘orphans’ by a group in Ann Arbor, Michigan? If these colleges can make up their own rules, then won’t every college and university, in every country, want to do the same?”

The plaintiffs acknowledge that fair dealing allows some copying and reproduction of in-copyright works, but argue that the systematic digitisation of such a large number of works (approximately 7 million) surpasses the exceptions allowed for in fair dealing.

It will be interesting to see what else emerges in the court case to come.