Jan 15, 2025
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OverDrive, the largest commercial provider of ebooks and other digital content to libraries, issued a surprise announcement on December 24 about a pending change in its ownership. Library technology expert Marshall Breeding explains what this sale means for libraries.
Long story short, OverDrive--public libraries’ leading provider of ebooks and digital audiobooks--is being purchased by the same company that owns RB Digital, another major audiobook platform. Given the hostility of some publishers towards library lending (Google “Macmillain ebook embargo”), a consolidation of the two platforms could benefit libraries because Overdrive “has a strong record of advocating for library interests” and merging with RB Digital “could add substantial clout to library interests in negotiating more favorable pricing and terms.”
A leading librarian who championed high tech, she dueled with preservationists like Nicholson Baker over how best to protect the written word for posterity.
Author Nicholson Baker was her arch-nemesis.
"Ms. Battin acknowledged that her chief concern was preserving the contents of a book or newspaper, not preserving the vessel itself.
'The book,” she wrote in 1989, “is a marvelous technology for use, but it is a cumbersome dissemination format and an increasingly frail storage format in this age of rapid telecommunications.'"
se-lin labeling system handbook (1965)
For Your Reading & Viewing Pleasure
Beautiful Miniature Books That Are Worth Sacrificing Your Eyesight For - Atlas Obscura
The Fates of Six Real-Life Pirates of the Caribbean - British National Archives
For These Philly Librarians, Drug Tourists and Overdose Drills Are Part of the Job - The Inquirer Daily News
A Lost Edith Wharton Play Emerges from Scholarly Sleuthing - The New Yorker
Meet This Newly Discovered Flying Squirrel - National Geographic
Protecting Patron Privacy in Public Libraries - TechSoup for Libraries
Ralph Ellison, Invisible Folklorist - Folklife Today
Studies in the News – a weekly compilation of policy-tested articles and reports compiled by the California Research Bureau
This Device Translates Text to Braille in Real Time - Smithsonian Magazine
Video by Statetech Magazine About My Library’s Technology - David Lee King
Spearhead a successful Wi-Fi hot spot lending program with advice from those who led the way Wi-Fi hot spot lending can help bridge the digital divide by addressing a persistent problem: lack of Internet access at home among low-income families.
These devices can be checked out like any other item in the library’s collections, and they don’t require installation in the home, as they rely on a cellular signal.
Hackers have infected every public computer in the St. Louis Public Library system, stopping all book borrowing and cutting off internet access to those who rely on the libraries for computers The computer system was hit by ransomware.
According to the library, hackers demanded $35,000 in the electronic currency Bitcoin -- but the library refuses to pay. Instead, it'll wipe the entire computer system and reset it, which could take days or weeks.
The city's libraries are overwhelmingly used by school children and the city's poorer residents. "For many of our patrons, we're their only access to the internet," Hatton said. "This is their only access to a computer. Some of them have a smartphone, but they don't have a data plan. They come in and use the WiFi."
The latest iteration of settler-colonial violence against Palestinians by Israel and yesterday’s announced acquisition of Ex Libris by Cl