First, I must pat myself on the back for my good fortune in discovering the Librarian in Black blog from last Friday when it first came out. I shared what I learned about the new ebook limitations with Overdrive with my coworker on Saturday, and she had no idea. I didn't see any mention of it on the InPub site I monitor until Monday - and then it was like the floodgates opened! Our collection management director finally sent an email out to our staff on Wednesday, informing everyone of Overdrive and HarperCollins changes, and warning us that a battle was brewing. Based on all the conversation on InPub, I think we are on the verge of seeing a Library Bill of Rights being written, and boycotts on the horizon. Anyway, I am pleased that because of fulfilling the assignment for this class, monitoring The Librarian in Black, I was aware of this BEFORE it became common knowledge in our library. Thanks, Library 105!
So that brings me to the follow-up to the Librarian in Black's (LiB) last column, and this new one discusses the lack of response to this ebook controversy by the ALA (American Library Association). While librarians are all expressing their opinions on public forums and social networking sites, the ALA has chosen not to address the issue on their website, or in their current publication. The LiB appreciates the president of the ALA's personal condemnation of the problem on her own Facebook account, but sees this as inadequate. The LiB wants the ALA to take a stand, and in so doing, be the powerful voice for all the anguished and frustrated librarians who feel publishers like HarperColllins are taking away our ability to provide for the public.
Once again, Educause and the "7 Things you should know about" had the old info. What a bummer. I was really thinking this site would be great, cause I'm a real bottom line type of gal, and 7 is a good number. Anyway, so then I looked at my alternate, ALA Techsource, and found an interesting article that talked about new Discovery Service software that provides massive indexes of search terms that can allow library catalogs to offer searches within ALL of the electronic resource subscriptions they have within their collection. I think we learned last week that this was called "metasearching." Here's the link if you want to see it for yourself: http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2011/03/building-comprehensive-resource-discovery-platforms.html
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