In these charged times, Overdrive has unfortunately timed a press release to the London Book Fair that should matter most to the US library market, giving some context to the contentiousness over publishers’ business relationships with library ebook lending. One strain of that dialog asserts that there is only one basis on which publishers license […]
Libraries
ALA Report: Book Ban Attempts Almost Doubled in 2022
The American Library Association released a new report on Thursday about the total amount of attempted book bans and restrictions in 2022, which they say almost doubled from the previous year. The AP writes, “More than 1,200 challenges were compiled by the association in 2022, nearly double the then-record total from 2021 and by far […]
Bill to Limit Library E-Book Lending Fails in VA Senate
A bill failed in the Virginia state senate yesterday that would have prevented publishers from imposing limits on lending electronic material. The Committee on General Laws and Technology voted 15-0 to block the bill. The bill stipulated that a publisher’s contract with a library could not “Preclude…the Library from licensing any electronic literary material;” “Restrict […]
For Weekend Reading and Permanent Collections
After a small hiccup, our librarian friends should be able to find and order our new ebook THE TRIAL: The DOJ’s Suit to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Simon & Schuster from Overdrive for your permanent collections. And all of our readers can enjoy the long fall weekend with a copy: Would you rather […]
Buy or Borrow: The Trial, For Libraries
As promised last week, for our friends in the library community our landmark gigantic ebook on THE TRIAL: The DOJ’s Suit to Block Penguin Random House’s Acquisition of Simon & Schuster, is now available to libraries through OverDrive. The book should be of broad interest to authors, and of particular interest to academic libraries with […]
School Library Book Ban Movement Pushes Librarians To Resign
The NYT looks at recent efforts to ban books from school libraries, with a focus on the effects felt by librarians. They catalog some of the most extreme cases, writing that librarians “have been labeled pedophiles on social media, called out by local politicians and reported to law enforcement officials.” Some have quit after experiencing […]