The Defense Arguments in Llano Case Are A Threat To Libraries

This case isn’t specifically about library digital content (although the county library did lose its OverDrive account, later replaced by another vendor).

It goes to the very heart of our work, however: will libraries be able to control all their collections, print and digital, or will local (or state) government be able to control what are in our collections, infringing our most cherished values?

The hearing was Wednesday.  You can listen to it  (an hour and ten minutes), if you want: https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/OralArgRecordings/23/23-50224_9-24-2024.mp3

A quick and greatly simplified summary:

 The attorney defending the county and Florida’s solicitor general (on behalf of 17 states) argue that a 1995 First Amendment decision by this same court should be overturned. That decision said a school board removing a book based on its subject mater was a violation of the Constitution.

 They argue that libraries are funded by the government, that library collections should therefore be considered “government speech,” that the government is not required to be viewpoint neutral, and therefore that the funding agency can control the collection without violating the First Amendment. They further argue that librarians are government agents and cannot make collection decisions without the “government” being allowed to decide what to choose and not to choose.

It seems a considerable leap from saying librarians should be allowed to make decisions to say that, for example, a county government could remove books from a library that the librarians wish to keep. It is, however, a leap that the defense is not only willing but eager to make.

The plaintiffs attorneys argue that libraries are public institutions, that the First Amendment is applicable in them, and that government entities cannot suppress books because of objections to their subject matter.

The argument that library collections are government speech has been shot down in many recent cases in other circuit courts. It is, again, a threat to basic library values. Even the county’s attorney conceded that his argument could lead to libraries that reflect only the limited views of one political party. I live in Maryland, where we are fortunate that our laws wisely say that libraries are to be “established free from political influence.”  The 5th Circuit has some judges who seem happy to support the government speech argument and to disagree with the courts upholding the freedom to read. Their ruling could send this case to the Supreme Court.  An adverse ruling there could be a wedge nationally to let local officials remove any books they don’t like, disadvantaging everyone who would like to explore ideas freely in a pluralistic society.

For a deeper exploration, please see  https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/libraries/article/96015-on-appeal-llano-county-seeks-book-ban-ruling-that-would-upend-public-libraries.html

The last two paragraphs of this piece are worth consideration: 

EveryLibrary founder John Chrastka told PW that if the court buys the government speech argument, it would be as big as overturning Miller, the 1939 Supreme Court case that sets forth a test for what constitutes obscenity.

"Allowing the Government Speech Doctrine to creep into the management of public libraries will upend everything that a public library is supposed to be," EveryLibrary reps said in a statement on the oral argument. "The outcome of this case will set a crucial precedent for the role of libraries in our democratic society, and it must reaffirm that libraries exist to serve the public’s right to access diverse, lawful ideas—not to promote government-sanctioned ideologies." 

No matter what your political views, if you care about libraries as institutions supporting all in their communities, find a way to voice your support. Speak up locally. Support groups that fight for the freedom to read. If nothing else, sign the EveryLibrary petition. This is about libraries, but even more. It is about freedom. Not the false freedom promoted by groups like the intellectually bankrupt Moms for Liberty, for whom freedom consists of denying freedoms to everyone else. The freedom to read all perspectives to be exposed to ideas and culture without having to pull out a credit card to buy things rather than experiencing them through that great and effective steward of our joint funding, the public library.

IA LIbrary Leaders Forum and Celebrations

RF Friend Chris Freeland has sent an update on the Internet Archive’s annual October events:

This year, our Library Leaders Forum will only be virtual. Normally we host an in-person discussion alongside our annual celebration, but we're taking action on feedback from last year's gathering & pausing this year while we rethink the event. Instead, we are hosting our virtual Library Leaders Forum on Thursday, October 17 [1 pm Eastern, 10 am Pacific]. You’ll hear from Internet Archive staff about our emerging library services and updates on existing efforts, as well as updates from our partners. How do libraries empower research in the 21st century? Join in our discussion!

Register now for the virtual Library Leaders Forum: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/library-leaders-forum-2024-virtual-tickets-1025035437587

We are still hosting our in-person celebrations, which are great fun for those who will be in the Bay Area on October 22 & 23. You can learn more & register for those events at https://blog.archive.org/2024/08/19/celebrate-with-the-internet-archive-on-october-22nd-23rd/ Use code IAVIP at checkout for complimentary tickets. There's also a livestream of the program on the 23rd from our Great Room, starting at 7pm PT.

Speakers from the Internet Archive include:

• Brewster Kahle, founder & digital librarian, Internet Archive

• Chris Freeland, library services

• Elizabeth Macleod, book digitization

• Liz Rosenberg, donations

• Jude Coelho, interlibrary loan

• Jefferson Bailey, Archive-It

• Mek, Open Library

• Mark Graham, Wayback Machine

• Luca Messarra, Vanishing Culture

Community projects include:

• Andrea Mills, Internet Archive Canada

• Jennie Rose Halperin, Library Futures

• Charlie Barlow, Boston Library Consortium

• Dave Hansen, Authors Alliance

• David Moore, BRIET

  Looks like a great line-up. Hope to “see” you there!

PW "Freedom to Read" Issue: Leila Green Little's "Modern Day McCarthyists"

Publishers Weekly’s Freedom to Read issue has many must-read articles, but I feel compelled to highlight one: Leila Green Little's "Modern Day McCarthyists: The Fight Against Book Bans in Llano County.” (While you are about it, however, also check out “The Resistance: Five People Standing Up to Book Banners” and so many others.)

Little’s (I apologize if it should properly be Green Little) is one of the people from Llano, Texas, bravely fighting the local county commissioners’ narrow-minded efforts to gut the public library—an effort that has alas been all-too chillingly effective.

The late Joseph McCarthy would be proud to see his legacy carried on by the hate of so many who are waging a war, ostensibly against books but really against Americans they don’t like and indeed against the use of government funding to represent all Americans and deny the promise America has made but not yet fulfilled for so many.

Here’s a hopeful snippet, but do read how the local officials have undermined a democratic institution:

The lawsuit brought by my fellow plaintiffs and me may very well create case law that will positively affect public libraries across America. But lawsuits alone can’t save the library in Llano—or any anywhere else—from death by a thousand cuts. Only community support can do that. This surge in book banning will end only when we collectively demonstrate that book banning will not win elections, cannot win in court, and that attacking librarians and educators is broadly unacceptable.

That lawsuit’s next chapter will play out on September 28th. It is no exaggeration to say that it will be consequential for libraries everywhere, even in states with Freedom to Read bills. If the side supported by the conservative states filing amicus briefs to say libraries are “government speech” and collection and programming can be controlled by local elected officials wins, there could be a legal wedge for undermining the independence of libraries everywhere. If that decision were to go to the current Supreme Court, can anyone be confident of good sense prevailing?

Let us hope that Ms. Little is correct that they “cannot win in court.” The alternative is frightening indeed.

In a related matter, please consider signing EveryLibrary’s Petition against Project 2025. “Libraries are mentioned multiple times throughout Project 2025. On page Five they call for arresting and registering all librarians as sex offenders.” Talk about misguided and misdirected rot. To (somewhat mis-) quote Mr. Stephen Colbert. “Sex offenses? That isn’t why people go into librarianship. It’s why they go into the clergy.”

How Much Does Obama's Summer Reading List Cost Your Library?

Laura Crossett and Jennie Rose Halperin posed this interesting question, so we looked into it.

Turns out—no surprise to those following ReadersFirst--not so very much in print but a lot in digital.

Read their post here.

A few highlights:

Former President Barack Obama recently released his highly anticipated annual summer reading list. We love a good list, but it got us thinking about what it takes for libraries to offer these books to their patrons. We’ve written about Obama’s books before – The New Yorker reported that 949 copies of his latest memoir cost the New York Public Library $51,962, the equivalent of 3,000 print copies.(!) Play the games on Ebooks for Us to learn more.

The print books cost an average of $16.38 each – $225.84 for all fourteen titles. The library owns those books – it can keep them for as long as they hold together. The average cost of each ebook, when licensed from Overdrive, came to $54.57. And as a reminder, that $54.57 is a license–it gives the library the right to lend the book for two years (or for a number of checkouts, with both number set by the publisher).

As one of the authors on Obama’s reading list (and indie press/intellectual freedom advocate!) Hanif Abdurruqib titled his book, There’s Always This Year. But instead, we have to paraphrase Bob Marley, another Obama favorite: “Them [big publisher’s] Belly Full, but We Hungry.”

How long will we stand for this?

Does Digital Ownership Matter for Libraries? Let's Talk About It

Collaborating For Access: Does Digital Ownership Matter For Libraries?

Wednesday, October 16, 2024, at 1p ET

From the DPLA, COSLA, and ReadersFirst:

What if libraries could circulate ebooks the same way they circulate print books: one user at a time with the ability to transfer titles to other hosts and libraries as they see fit? Can this model, now offered by dozens of indie publishers to libraries nationwide, help us all better fulfill our missions in an increasingly digital space? 

In this Collaborating for Access webinar, the eighth in an ongoing series presented by COSLA, DPLA and ReadersFirst, we will discuss the recent announcement by DPLA and Independent Publishers Group of their groundbreaking agreement that now allows libraries to own, rather than merely license, digital books they acquire through the Palace Marketplace. But how much does digital ownership really matter? Join us to learn more about the new model, discuss why it is vital for libraries to own the digital items they collect, explore how ownership could reshape library digital collecting, and think about the future of circulation services. 

Moderator: Michael Blackwell, Director, St. Mary’s County Library

Speakers: 

• Christina de Castell // Chief Librarian & CEO, Vancouver Public Library

• Micah May // Director of Ebook Services, Digital Public Library of America  

• Michael Weinberg // Executive Director, Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy, New York University Law School

• Richard Williams // Vice President, Independent Publishers Group

Register here.

Hope to “see” you there!

The Internet Archive: Escaping the Memory Hole

It’s later in the evening for those of us in the Eastern Time Zone who might attend virtually, but the Internet Archive is hosting an interesting event in October. In-person attendance at the Archive’s Main Library in San Francisco is also possible, and the Library is well-worth seeing.

Let's gather together on October 22nd & 23rd to celebrate the vital role of libraries in preserving our shared digital culture.

• October 22: Tour the Physical Archive
  Join us on Tuesday, October 22, as we take a peek behind the doors of the Physical Archive in Richmond, California.

• October 23: Join our annual celebration—in-person & online!
  Join us on Wednesday, October 23, for “Escaping the Memory Hole.” In a world where major entertainment websites vanish overnight and streaming media disappears from platforms without warning, our digital culture is at risk of being erased. What safeguards are in place to preserve our collective memory?

• This year’s gathering, “Escaping the Memory Hole,” explores the vital role that libraries play in protecting our digital heritage. As corporate decision-makers increasingly control what stays online, libraries like the Internet Archive stand as guardians of our shared digital culture, ensuring that it remains preserved and accessible for future generations.

Links to sign up for in-person or virtual are here.

As RF has frequently noted, and as indeed is axiomatic by now, streaming media, which libraries often can never capture unless the content eventually goes into physical digital formats, is a serious challenge to our mission to preserve. All efforts to solve this problem are welcome. RF sends thanks and well-wishes to the Internet Archive for their many efforts to preserve content that might otherwise be “writ in water.”

Price increases from three of the Big Five

Some of our libraries have seen unusually high costs over the past few months. We asked OverDrive to help us investigate and they shared that Hachette raised prices in May.

When we analyzed the price increase, we found that Macmillan and HarperCollins have also raised prices within the last year.

Details:

Washington Digital Library Consortium compared the price per unit we paid on Big Five titles in 2023 to what the price is now in OverDrive.

We found:

HarperCollins eAudio prices are now 8% higher than what we spent in 2023, and its eBook prices are 15% higher on average.

Hachette eAudio prices are 20% higher now than in 2023, which will be painful going forward because Hachette eAudio licenses expire after 24 months. Hachette eBook prices increased by 4%.

Macmillan eAudio is holding steady, but its eBook prices have increased by an average of 20%. Macmillan's policy has historically been to charge $60 for a 24 month license on a newly published eBook. One year after release, the eBook price used to change to $40. Now, Macmillan eBook titles more than one year old are $55.

WDLC confirmed the Hachette price increases with another large library system in another state and found identical data, so we believe these price increases are occurring for all OverDrive libraries. If you have questions or would like to see the data, please feel free to reach out to RF leadership.

DPLA, IPG: Groundbreaking Agreement Provides Libraries with Permanent Ownership Rights Over Tens of Thousands of Digital Titles

Chalk one up in the Good News category; libraries now have the right to OWN rather than just license content.

“The Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) and Independent Publishers Group (IPG) have announced a groundbreaking agreement that will transform how American libraries provide access to books for millions of readers.

Through this landmark collaboration between IPG and DPLA, libraries around the country will now have the power to purchase and own in perpetuity, rather than merely license, tens of thousands of ebook and audiobook titles from dozens of independent publishers. The agreement will empower libraries to fulfill their mission to provide access to books for readers nationwide. Publishers such as Austin Macauley, Arcadia Publishing, Dynamite Entertainment, Dover Publications and JMS Books, alongside dozens of other renowned indie publishers, are participating in the deal.”

Example publishers (not exhaustive, only includes publishers with 50+ books on offer)

• Austin Macauley Publishers

• Otbebookpublishing

• Babelcube Inc.

• Jms Books Llc2

• The History Press

• Eerdmans

• Image Comics, Inc.

• Dreamspinner Press

• Arcadia Publishing

• Casa Creacion

• Wayne State University Press

• Publication Consultants

• Dynamite Entertainment

• Braunfell Books

• ePublishing Works!

• Oni Press

• Barakaldo Books

• Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

• Megan Publishing Services

• Dover Publications

• Nyla

• Funstory

• Book Boutiques

• DSP Publications

• Patavium Publishing

• Mike Watson

• Eerdmans Books for Young Readers

• Harmony Ink Press

• Porirua Publishing

• Kregel Publications

• Next Chapter

• Michael van der Voort

• Acelette Press

• Goylake Publishing

• Microcosm Publishing

• Kc Global Enterprises Pty Ltd

• Pelican Publishing

• Deborah A. Cooke

• Total Publishing

• Spunky Girl Publishing

• Shadoe Publishing

• Archaia

• Celtic Hearts Press

Search a full list of titles here. Costs range from $3, with most in the $10 - $30 range. A few academic titles are more costly, but then their print equivalents tend to be costly as well.

View the terms of ownership here.

What’s not to like? For a change, libraries can truly treat digital books like we do print books. Even “perpetual access” was never guaranteed, witness the Amazon debacle with 1984. We can circulate them one person at a time. We decide if we want to weed them. We can transfer hosting, should we choose, and arrange to have them as long as we want. Most of all, we don’t—as we currently must with every ebook from the Big 5— have to keep paying over and over to keep access.

The cost is also a plus. I have reason to believe that the first book acquired under the new model is Maryland Freedom Seekers on the Underground Railroad. Retail cost is $24. For $29, Maryland Palace libraries have long-term ebook access.

Ownership of digital may not necessarily right in every circumstance. A whole range of models can—and should—benefit libraries. But thousands of books that we don’t have to re-license at reasonable costs is surely something to celebrate!

Library Future's Take on Hoopla's Content Problem

In “Hoopla's Content Problem: Strange, Skewed Results Still Dominate Catalog,” Laura Crossett and Jennie Rose Halperin document some unfortunate search returns in Hoopla’s Pay-Per-use model: “in trying to offer the most content over quality content, Hoopla serves up an enormous amount of erroneous, low quality information at the top of search results. Top line searches return a plethora of irrelevant, seemingly AI-generated, and even pirated materials that often differ greatly from the choices that librarians make for their communities.”

They contrast searches done on WorldCat and Hoopla for fiction and non-fiction topics, with Hoopla returning “so much of what our colleague Sarah Lamdan of the American Library Association calls ‘vendor slurry,’ or low quality materials” that by any objective standard skew radically to the right and religious, such as a search on “Democrats” that retrieves the titles Whites, Blacks, and Racist Democrats and The Only GOD (caps in the original), the U.S. Constitution, and the Democrats as two of the first hits.

They rightly ask “why does that content rise so high in the search results? Are patrons searching for bestselling authors looking to read poor quality summaries of their work? Should patrons searching for information on hot-button topics be getting such clearly skewed results?”

 Readers may try their own Hoopla searches. Mine validate the criticism. Should America’s Death Spiral from ebookit and the self-published Democrats’ Dirty Deeds and The Ass is a Poor Receptacle for the Head really be coming to the top of a search? Interestingly, a search for “Republicans” does not offer any similar quality (if opposed in view) results in the first ten hits, but others appear later, including summaries of various works such as Summary of Steve Benen’s The Imposters, written by IRB Media. AI generated schlock, anyone?

The authors “are not advocating censorship of materials. Hoopla is free to offer whatever content they want, and libraries are free to select whatever content they feel best fits the needs of their communities. But the key word is select. Hoopla’s model bypasses selection in favor of an all-or-nothing subscription in which you get what you get, and the lack of oversight at the top trickles down to patrons seeking quality information at their libraries.”

To be fair, librarians can suppress content in Hoopla, an activity which, we can hope, would be done on the basis of quality and factuality. The problem is that the “slurry” has become so commonplace that it would have to somebody’s fulltime job to de-select.

My aim in sharing Library Future’s post is not to discourage Indie titles. Far from it. An emphasis on quality Indie and small-press titles is vital as a wedge against outlandish Big 5 license terms (i.e. costs). But are we pushing poorly edited and factually dubious content even while we teach information literacy and fight misinformation? As a library director, my concerns also have to be in part fiscal. Hoopla use is growing for us, and the costs are now all-but unsustainable. Are patrons borrowing mere summaries—which they probably don’t really want— at a cost every time? Are we paying for works that have no more truthfulness than a debunked social media post?

If you are concerned, please consider joining Crossett and Halperin’s call to discuss strategy.

eBook Study Group's Juliya Ziskina featured in SPARC

We are excited to share that library advocate Juliya Ziskina was recently featured in SPARC Online's impact stories. Here is a snippet:

"In law school, Yuliya Ziskina helped write the playbook on open access advocacy for students. As an attorney, she uses her expertise to push for policies that enable libraries to fulfill their mission to the public. She’s also leveraged her advocacy skills as a global leader on making the case for repurposing Russian state assets to compensate Ukraine."

(We checked with her and verified that she uses both Juliya and Yuliya)

Readers First members may know Juliya from her work as a fellow with Library Futures in 2022. Or, you may have encountered her more recently volunteering her legal expertise with eBook Study Group, helping libraries across the country draft legislation to address our challenges with digital library book licenses.

It is inspiring to learn that she also volunteers her expertise as an attorney in several ways on behalf of Ukraine. Juliya says, “Our democracy starts with available information, and public access to research and knowledge…This is the fundamental way that we protect our civil rights and our civil liberties." (She sounds like a librarian!) Juliya, thank you for your tireless efforts!