Week 5 Readings

Across the Digital Divide

Seanan McGuire discusses her thoughts on the digital divide, as it relates to e-books and the supposed death of print materials.

McGuire's post brings up a point that I haven't heard many people talk about when discussing e-books: affordability of e-books/e-book readers for people who are living below the poverty line. As McGuire points out, US Census data for 2010 has 15.1% of Americans living below the poverty level. (However, when looking at how that number is calculated by the Census, it seems that the actual number might be much higher.) The high upfront cost of an e-book reader plus the cost of each e-book adds up very quickly to the point where reading is a luxury that is unaffordable, which is kind of the opposite of what libraries tend to promote. It's easy to get excited about advances in technology, because they're usually SHINY and FAST and OTHER EXCITING ADJECTIVES, but we do need to remember that not everyone has the ability to access all of those advances.

The Koha Saga

This article discusses the legal issues revolving around the open source library system, Koha, and the company LibLime, which purchased the copyright to the Koha source code. LibLime's attempt to make the system proprietary was met with vocal resistance from the Koha community.

The points raised about copyrights and trademarks as they related to open source code was really interesting, and increasingly important with the rise of open source software. It was cool to see how passionate the Koha community was about their code and keeping the system open, but it also made me wonder why the HLT allowed the copyright to be purchased by someone else. I can understand if they didn't want to have to perform all the maintenance and upgrades, but considering it was going to be open anyway, it doesn't make sense not to have some sort of legal protection around their product.

Examining the Role of Libraries in an E-book World

Ross looks at how libraries are adapting to e-books, and the limitations placed on libraries by e-book formats, readers, and publishers.

I have recently been converted to the wonders of e-books, even if I can't always find the ones I want at the library. It helps that Amazon now lets patrons check out books for the Kindle through Overdrive, so more formats are available for users. I hadn't realized that HarperCollins had not changed its stance on e-book lending policies, and I still don't really understand where they came up with 26 checkouts as the limit. I do get that the publishing industry is worried, especially because of concerns about piracy, but placing the burden on libraries is probably not the best way to continue to sell books.

The Next Generation Library Catalog

This study compares two open-source library systems, Koha and Evergreen, and a proprietary library system, WebVoyage, to see which has the most next-generation features.

I thought it was interesting to see a comparison between these three systems, but I feel like there are proprietary systems that can hold their own against Koha and Evergreen, at least how they are presented in this paper. Also, I wondered about the feasibility of implementing a recommended/related materials feature, especially considering the privacy concerns that are brought up in the 'RFID in Libraries' article. I couldn't think of a way for libraries to have such a feature without either a) tracking patrons' checkouts or b) looking at recommended reads on Amazon, which would probably cost money.

RFID in Libraries

This article looks at privacy concerns in libraries after implementing RFID tags in materials.

I've always thought RFID tags were the best things ever, because they allowed me to go to the library, get my books and check them out, all without interacting with another human being. It was wonderful. That being said, I do remember some of the issues that came up when my home library district decided to start using RFID tags, and privacy was the major one. The fact that libraries use passive tags, with the minimum amount of information on them is a big step towards alleviating those fears, but as the article points out, evolving technology makes threats to privacy increasingly real. I don't agree with all the potential threats the author outlines (surreptitious RFID readers in furniture? Seems like a lot of work to track library materials.), but I do realize that these things are possible.