« Grim for grown ups | Main | Celebrating the downfall of Edinburgh libraries »
November 10, 2008
E-books in UK public libraries and the MLA
The Bookseller has this article posted last Friday.
It seems that once again public libraries are spending time and resource rushing into a new technical field in which so much of the future is uncertain. The one thing of which one can be sure is that everything will be different in 12 months time, and at that point the same thing will be true. One just wishes they wouldn't do that and that some council financial officer would insist that they behave responsibly. Yet again this story has the flavour of 'We all went to a conference at which some geek who is in the commercial world told us about a new technology for libraries and we have to be the first in line"
However what surprised me most in this article was the absence of any mention of the MLA. Why should The Reading Agency be the appropriate go-between for public libraries and publishers on a matter like this? What has happened to the MLA? Have they given up already in the face of Lyn Brown's roaring?
Posted by Perkins at November 10, 2008 10:01 AM
Comments
The type of librarians rushing after the latest sexy toy are probably the same ones who wrote most of this month's Update - a load of dross and pretentious jargon about Web 2.0 and the latest 12-point plans to rule the (library) world. Richard Fallis in Information Scotland recently made the point that such librarians are like a bunch of middle-aged vicars desperately trying to be trendy. E-books may or may not work (they will probably end up complementing other services and not working quite as well as expected) but I do really wish CILIP (AKA the Judean People's Front) would stop trying to be trendy and concentrate unequivocally and centrally on books and reading. Incidentally, hi Mrs Moss-Gibbons! I'm sick to death of CILIP but like the fact you're contributing. It shows some guts and distances you from the Judean vicars!
Posted by: James Christie at November 10, 2008 4:14 PM
I have to agree with you James about the Update Magazine - yesterday I was reading an old issue from October where it mentions words like 'co-production' which apparently is a trendy new buzz word embodying community and library projects (although I cannot be sure about this because it did not make any sense).
Posted by: Katie at November 11, 2008 10:26 AM
Your blog is terrific!
Here is the url of the blog from the Archives of the Sandusky Library,
if you would care to take a look:
http://sanduskyhistory.blogspot.com
Posted by: Reference Services at November 13, 2008 4:58 PM