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November 14, 2008
It's the content - Stupid
Looking around to marshall the arguments that might persuade library buyers not to become obsessed with e books ( A chief executive of one large international publishing house said this week that, for general books, rather than academic ones, his company anticipates that e-editions will amount to just one percent of new book sales - in five years time. And new books represent about one quarter of his overall business- the other 75% is backlist. ) I come to persuasive line 'It's the content stupid' which means stop concentrating on technology and put your book collections in order.
There is an amateurish obsession with new technologies in UK public libraries which diverts valuable resources and precious management attention from the job that needs to be done.
Then I found the same headline on the website of my American friends at Berkshire publishing. Unlike in the UK, the Americans have not given up publishing Encyclopediae for library use. That's what Karen at Berkshire does. American libraries buy them. So should libraries here.
(Berkshire sponsor this blog- I'm pleased and grateful to say. )
Posted by Perkins at November 14, 2008 7:50 PM