A Gathering Storm?

Another voice has joined the Library Copyright Alliance (speaking for ALA's Washington Office, Association of Research Libraries, and the Association of College and Research Libraries), Society of American Archivists, and DPLA in opposing changes to Section 108 of  copyright: the Internet Archive, home of the "Wayback Machine."

In this blog post, Lila Bailey cites some of the other groups lining up against change and wonders, quite rightly, who wants changes in the sections governing library use of materials. 

"This recent move, which has its genesis in an outdated set of proposals from 2008, is just another in series of out of touch ideas coming from the Copyright Office. We’ve seen them propose 'notice and staydown' filtering of the Internet and disastrous 'extended collective licensing' for digitization projects. These and other proposals have lead some to start asking whose Copyright Office this is, anyway. Now the Copyright Office wants to completely overhaul Section 108 of the Copyright Act, the 'library exceptions,' in ways that could break the Wayback Machine and repeal fair use for libraries."

"Drafting a law now could make something that is working well more complicated, and could calcify processes that would otherwise continue to evolve to make digitization efforts and web archiving work even better for libraries and content owners alike.

In fact, just proposing this new legislation will likely have the effect of hitting the pause button on libraries. It will lead to uncertainty for the libraries that have already begun to modernize by digitizing their analog collections and learning how to collect and preserve born-digital materials. It could lead libraries who have been considering such projects to 'wait and see'.”

A good friend of ReadersFirst, Carrie Russell of Washington's ALA Office, warns of what might result from a process that seems "Top secret, hush, hush."

With this many groups taking objection, librarians should be getting familiar with this issue and be ready to take a stand. Will changes in Section 108 inhibit fair use of materials? Does the Copyright Office already know what it wants and is it bowing to pressure from rights holders disappointed in the outcome of the Google case and eager to effect though legislation what could not be gotten through the courts? 

Far from closing "library exceptions," the Copyright Office should be looking at ways that licensing closes out public access to library materials--fair use that we have under copyright but not under restrictive contracts. The public has a right to information and libraries have a duty to preserve information. Be ready to tell your legislators that you oppose closing out so-called "library exceptions" and advocate for a laws that balance the rights of copyright holders and information consumers in a rapidly changing digital environment.

Michael Blackwell, St Mary's County Library

Standardized Library e-content APIs? Yes!

t the Digital Content Working Group sponsored panel discussion session at ALA Orlando, NISO CEO Todd Carpenter discussed an upcoming project that would establish a library API tool set, creating standards for vendors and libraries to provide content and enhance patron service. The NISO group would start with Queens Library’s API developments and build on them.

Good news!: the NISO Discovery to Delivery Topic Committee has approved the API project. It will now move to a 30-day ballot of NISO Voting members.

Here is a summary of the deliverables:

“A NISO Recommended Practice describing an API framework covering library-related communications and functions such as customized genre or category views for browse, search, and discovery of collections, catalog information, or digital resources, user authentication, transmission of account information, management of barcodes, check out and return items, stream audio/read material online, show item availability, cancel holds and item requests, and other requirements as determined by stakeholders such as any and all aspects of library operations that have need for convenient, secure, and real time transactions via web services.”

And a Summary of the Process: 

“A NISO working group comprised of stakeholders as described below will create the deliverables, using as a starting point the Queens Library API Requirements, which are expected to be modified by Working Group experts throughout the development.  Meetings will take place bi-weekly via telephone and WebEx. An in-person meeting or public forum scheduled as part of the process may also help to progress discussion and action. In addition, the Working Group experts will also create materials to help educate the community and support the ongoing effort.

Why is this important? Development of these API standards has the potential to enhance the library user’s experience, creating greater integration of platforms and content. It would establish standards that vendors could be asked to work within and libraries could employ nationally and even internationally. This initiative would further ReadersFirst's mission and help us realize our vision of interoperable content. ReadersFirst had adopted working on such standards as a goal, but decided instead that we would do all we could to support using Queens Library’s work as a standard.

Please consider helping:

If you or someone at your library is a voting member of NISO, please, please, please vote “yes.”

If you are interested in working on the project, NISO should (if the “yes” vote comes in) be looking for developers and interested librarians to participate.

If the standards take shape, we should all be discussing with our vendors and asking them to get on board.

Now is the time for all good librarians to come to the aid of the party.

SimplyE in the News . . . Again

Thanks to the redoubtable Micah May from New York Public Library for sharing news that the SimplyE app has gone past its "soft" roll-out and is now officially launched. 

Explains May:

"Although NYPL's SimplyE went into the App Store last month as part of a "soft launch" or "preview" it formally launched today with promotional materials in the branches and press push.  Here is some of the initial coverage:"

New York Daily News - ran in print today

AMNY Online

Library Journal Info Docket

CBS2 News Online

"We expect coverage in WNYC and Library Journal later this week.  I've been most excited about rave reviews on social media from our own librarians, who can be a tough audience."  

This app's implementation of ReadersFirst principles makes it the first library-developed tool for getting content across diverse platforms. Watch here for more news as it expands in use and is enhanced in features.

Michael Blackwell, St Mary's County Library

Maybe We Need Adult Coloring E-books?

Yesterday the American Association of Publishers released their StatShot Annual survey.

 “Produced by AAP, StatShot Annual estimates the total size of the U.S. publishing industry by collecting sales data in dollars and units from nearly 1,800 active U.S. publishers. Data is collected directly from publishers, with the help of distributors. Estimates are used for publishers who do not participate directly, based on their company financial reports, government filings, BooksinPrint, press releases, third party research services, and other third party sources.”

 http://newsroom.publishers.org/us-publishing-industrys-annual-survey-reveals-nearly-28-billion-in-revenue-in-2015/

 A quick summary:

 ·         Overall revenue and units sold are basically flat from 2014—revenue down a bit (0.6%) and units up a bit (0.5%)

·         Trade books increased slightly in both categories

·          It was a tough year in academic publishing, which shrank in both categories and pulled the overall numbers down

·         Adult books sales grew—thank you, coloring books (not that we want you in library collections)

·         Children’s/YA titles declined

·         Hardback and paperback numbers grew

·         E-book sales were down 11.3% and down 9.7% in units sold

·         Downloadable audio grew a whopping 37.6% in sales and 41.1% in units

 All that said, does this report tell the whole story? It certainly covers the sources of most library content (the 1,800 publishers). What would print look like if we took coloring books completely out? It leaves out the self-published e-book market. This market is growing, in part because publishers’ agency pricing puts many e-books beyond the “sweet spot” price that might attract more sales. See here for a study that (though it has limits in methodology, being based only on Amazon sales) tries to paint a fuller picture of the e-book market.  http://authorearnings.com/report/may-2016-report/

Library eBooks circ still seems to be growing (up around 15% in an admittedly unscientific ReadersFirst poll conducted earlier this year). Agency pricing is perhaps helping us there. AAP’s current StatShot does point to a trend that RF must increasingly include in our advocacy of a unified and streamlined user experience: downloadable audiobooks are becoming even more important (apps on phones helping?) and probably need to be a factor in future e-content considerations.  

A Step Forward in Europe?

Does a library have the same right to lend an e-book that it does with print? That question is very much up for debate in Europe, where e-book lending has not been so open as in the USA.  Not every publisher in Europe has been willing to sell e-books to libraries. Libraries in Europe were not even certain that it was legal to lend e-books and, it was argued, libraries should not be able to do so unless they had a license from the rights holder specifically allowing circulation. A case before the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) may settle the matter. The outcome so far is looking good for libraries. Advocate General Maciej Szpunar has released an opinion, currently under review by the CJEU, holding that e-books should be covered under the same lending right as print.

As Nils Rauer and Eva Vona explain,  "The dispute that led to the request as submitted by the Dutch court arose between the library society Vereniging Openbare Bibliotheken (VOB) and the collecting society Stichting Leenrecht. In the Netherlands, public libraries are required to obtain a license for lending e-books. VOB aims to introduce a “one copy one user” system. Under such scheme, libraries would be allowed to create and provide a digital copy of an e-book (Reproduction A) on their library server. The library user borrowing the e-book would be granted the option to download a digital copy (Reproduction B). Upon expiry of the lending period, the Reproduction B would become invalid and not accessible anymore. Moreover, during the time that the e-book has been lent out, no other library user could download a copy of the same e-book."

What seems like common practice to those used to libraries on this side of the Atlantic is in fact radical enough for a court ruling in Europe.

Szpunar's opinion is that the provisions governing library lending rights need to be interpreted dynamically, allowing new formats to be covered, even if they were not mentioned or even heard of when the provisions were originally drafted. He also stresses how library e-book use can benefit authors, perhaps giving them compensation without having to depend upon licensing agreements with publishers (from which, he says, they seldom gain). He also points to the important role libraries play in sharing and preserving as a justification for treating e-books the same as print.

Rauer and Vona note that the CJEU will need to balance the publishers' perspective with Szpunar's opinion in their ruling.  The European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations (EBLIDA) and IFLA, while quick to support Szpunar, hope to extend any ruling beyond his opinion: "The European library community notes that the CJEU Advocate-General’s Opinion challenges some current national laws and programmes for e-lending, but the question of market distortion, whereby publishers may refuse to make e-book titles available to libraries for lending, remains unsolved. Should the Court uphold the AG’s Opinion, we stand ready to provide expertise and support to legislators to bring about inclusive legislation which meets library patrons’ expectations and offers legal certainty for all." 

RF offers its support (however distant we are and how little it may help) to our library friends in EBLIDA and IFLA.  We hope that we might hear more about this situation at the upcoming IFLA conference in Columbus, OH.  We have European members. If we can do anything to help, please reach out. This case should be a rallying point for all librarians and inspire us to extend our efforts to ensure access to e-content in every continent. While the situation is better in the USA than in Europe, to judge at least from this case, our fight to get access under improved business models and to have e-books treated as much under copyright with as few problematic licensing restrictions as is feasible is far from over.  How might our copyright laws be enhanced to improve access to library e-book lending? And might we also learn something? Should more of us investigate in our own libraries, or at least support the many consortial efforts underway for libraries to have e-books on library servers, negotiating with rights holders for better access? Would some authors offer simultaneous use?  Would some publishers offer better pricing or access terms directly to libraries? The e-content world is young and we need constantly to explore and advocate.      

LJ's INFODOCKET Posts a Video on Library eBook Platforms

Though it was given in April, RF is happy to see this session from DP.LAFest captured and posted recently by LJ.  

In it, Michelle Bickert from DP.LA, Micah May from New York Public Library, Christine Peterson from Amigos, and Gregory Pronevitz from Massachusetts Library System discuss the following (taken from session abstract): "Library ebook stakeholders convened at DPLAfest 2015 to collaborate and address the challenges ebooks present to libraries. What does the library ebook ecosystem look like one year later? What progress have we made, and where can we continue to disrupt? During this session, we will discuss the goals and states of both library-owned platforms and consortial solutions, innovative technologies, and the possibility of a 'national ebook platform'.”

Free Access to 200,000+ Family History eBooks

Our Friends and Partners at the Digial Public Library of America are bringing hundreds of thousands of eBooks to library users for free. It's a great reminder that not all content has to come from for-profit library vendors and well worth a mention on library websites. Here is their most recent offering:

"In concert with the American Library Association national conference in Orlando, Florida, this week, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and FamilySearch International, the largest genealogy organization in the world, have signed an agreement that will expand access to FamilySearch.org’s growing free digital historical book collection to DPLA’s broad audience of users including genealogists, researchers, family historians, students, and more.

Family history/genealogy continues to be a popular and growing hobby. And FamilySearch is a leader in the use of technology to digitally preserve the world’s historic records and books of genealogical relevance for easy search and access online. With this new partnership, DPLA will incorporate metadata from FamilySearch.org’s online digital book collection that will make more than 200,000 family history books discoverable through DPLA’s search portal later this year. From DPLA, users will be able to access the free, fully viewable digital books on FamilySearch.org.  

The digitized historical book collection at FamilySearch.org includes genealogy and family history publications from the archives of some of the most important family history libraries in the world. The collection includes family histories, county and local histories, genealogy magazines and how-to books, gazetteers, and medieval histories and pedigrees.  Tens of thousands of new publications are added yearly."

Live, From New York . . . It's SimplyE

New York Public Library has moved the SimplyE app from Beta into public use. It can now be downloaded from the iStore or Google Playstore. As of the first day, 3,000 users have adopted the app and it is working without a hitch.

This is big news for people other than those fortunate enough to have an NYPL library card. NYPL is interested in increased use of the app and is working with other groups to see it implemented. It may help groups or libraries without IT development staff by adoption and hosting. In a few years, as part of the LEAP initiative implementation, Minitex MAY (this is very conditional but they are hoping) may also be able to help others with development. In addition to Minitex, a number of consortiums or libraries are moving towards implementation, including Connecticut, Rhode Island, Califa, Georgia Libraries, and RAILS. Over 1,000 libraries are marching to realize this next step in library service to provide a more integrated and effective library eContent experience.

Currently, it looks as if libraries might be able to have two options: the SimplyE app, which is brandable, or the more generic Open eBooks app (which was the first iteration of SimplyE): perhaps not brandable, but lower cost and easier to implement, providing access to open source eBooks, the ConnectED titles, and whatever eBooks that the library may have contracted for.

It is important to note that the SimplyE app will undergo continued development. Its accessibility features will become more robust and its compatibility with other eContent (not just eBooks) will be enhanced. 

ReadersFirst extends a big thanks to NYPL for its pioneering working developing a library content solution, designed by librarians for librarians. We hope that our members, and all libraries, will recognize the revolutionary (or, if you prefer, evolutionary) prospects offered SimplyE, investigate, and implement it in some form.  

 Michael Blackwell, St. Mary's County Library 

An Opportunity to Own and Not Just License?

Copyright and Technology notes that the U.S. Copyright Office has announced it is seeking comments on Section 108 in ways that could clarify/simplify use of eBooks in libraries.  

The United States Copyright
Office is inviting interested parties to
discuss potential revisions relating to
the library and archives exceptions in
the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 108, in
furtherance of the Copyright Office’s
policy work in this area over the past
ten years and as part of the current
copyright review process in Congress.
The Copyright Office has led and
participated in major discussions on
potential changes to section 108 since
2005, with the goal of updating the
provisions to better reflect the facts,
practices, and principles of the digital
age and to provide greater clarity for
libraries, archives, and museums. To
finalize its legislative recommendation,
the Copyright Office seeks further input
from the public on several remaining
issues, including, especially, provisions
concerning copies for users, security
measures, public access, and third-party
outsourcing. The Copyright Office
therefore invites interested parties to
schedule meetings in Washington, DC to
take place during late June through July
2016, using the meeting request form
referenced below. 

Copyright and Technology's article is a good overview of what the obstacles we face to put eBooks before readers that we don't face with print. Appearing at person in Washington D.C.may not be easy, but RF hopes at least some library groups will make the effort. Follow the link to the U.S. Copyright office to see how.  

What If the eBook Had Come First?

Every once in a while, RF likes to drop its earnest demeanor and report something fun. Tom Challies' recent blog post "Imagine if eBooks Came First" makes a neat point while provoking a smile: "In this scenario, you sat on your mommy’s knee while she read Goodnight Moon from a tablet, you heard dad read Little House on the Prairie from his Kindle, and you spent your years of schooling learning from electronic textbooks. Gutenberg had worked tirelessly centuries before to perfect the Kindle but now Jeff Bezos is heralding the remarkable new technology of the printing press and the amazing books it churns out. Where would the new book pale in comparison to the old ebook? What are the reasons we would give to remain with the status quo?"

Read the post to find out.  Challies ends with a prediction prophesying war: "For the first time in 500 years the printed book has found a worthy rival in the ebook. One will eventually inevitably emerge the winner. For what it’s worth, I think it will be a protracted battle that will eventually see the ebook vanquish its predecessor." RF isn't sure we need to think of the print/eBooks shift in martial terms, though likely the day is eventually coming when books will be "read" by loading into a composite human/computer circuit brain, finally rendering print obsolete. Until then, enjoy your format of choice and just help boost reading as our product. 

Michael @ St Mary's Co Library