In her latest post on the ALA TechSource blog Jenny Levine discusses libraries, digital content, and DRM. Her central point is the one I’ve been making for a while now:
“But therein lies the problem, because while RGPL THINKS it owns the content in the traditional sense of the termÂin the same way it thinks it own the books, CDs, and DVDs it has purchasedÂit DOESN’T. Because digital content is different from physical content, in that there is no right of first sale for it, despite the seemingly reassuring terms of the signed agreement.”
I have no problem with libraries lending digital content (never mind thaccessibilityty problems; e-books on an iPoanyonenw?) but the problem is that the library doesn’t own the content nor does it ultimately have control over said content. The content provider sets the length of loan time (which most libraries don’t seem to mind for some reason) but, more importantly, what happens when the content provider goes out of business? Bye bye content. What then?
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
View all posts by Michael Sauers
