With Maryland’s precedent-breaking law requiring publishers to license ebooks to public libraries “on reasonable terms” set to be implemented at the beginning of 2022, the AAP has filed in the US District Court for Maryland. The association seeks, “A declaration that the Maryland Act is preempted by federal law and unconstitutional, and an injunction preventing its enforcement.” They allege four causes of action, including express and conflict preemption under the Copyright Act and the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, along with violations of the Commerce Clause, and the Due Process Clauses. While the AAP usually supports and organizes actions brought […]
Libraries
Librarians Talk Pandemic Budget Adjustments, Diversity at Summit
Follett and Baker & Taylor held their virtual 2021 Publisher Summit on Friday. In the opening session, Follett School Solutions ceo of content Britten Follett and Baker & Taylor evp Aman Kochar discussed business trends for each company. (FSS was sold just over a month ago to Francisco Partners.) Kochar reported that B&T’s ebook sales are up more than 15 percent over pre-pandemic levels, and ebook library circulations are up 40 percent. While print sales are down “6.5, 6.7 percent” from pre-pandemic levels, he says the recovery has been faster than he expected, attributed partially to American Rescue Plan grants. […]
NYPL Picture Collection to Remain Browsable
Following criticism after announcing that the New York Public Library’s Picture Collection would be archived as a research collection and taken out of general circulation, the organization has reversed that decision. The picture collection will remain open for public browsing and will move to a new location, Room 119 of the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at Bryant Park in Manhattan. The move is expected to be completed in early 2022, and the collection’s staff will continue to be available to patrons. The NYPL said on its blog, “Following patron feedback that the Collection’s continued circulation and browsability are critical, the […]
Protest Planned As NYPL Plans to Close Public Access to Picture Collection
We missed the NYT’s soft feature from early August with hard news for people in creative industries and beyond: The New York Public Library has come to the misguided conclusion that they will restrict public access to this extraordinary resource by early next year. “The collection will be archived, available to visitors only by specific request,” the NYT reported. Director of the research libraries William P. Kelly decided that it is more important to preserve the archive than have people use it. “Either it is ephemera and doesn’t belong in a research library, or else it is an archive that […]
Copyright Office Concurs that Maryland’s Library Lending Law Is “Likely…Preempted” By the Copyright Act
Register of Copyrights and director of the US Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter formally responded to US Senate ranking member on the subcommittee on intellectual property Thom Tillis’s request for an analysis of Maryland’s recently-enacted law regulating library lending of ebooks and similar efforts pending on other states. Tillis was clearly looking for confirmation of his inference “that these state legislative efforts would appear to directly conflict with the Copyright Act’s clear language” and “preemption rules that situate copyright law exclusively at the federal level.” Perlmutter concurs, noting, “We conclude that under current precedent, the state laws at issue are likely […]
Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden On Access to Tech
During the opening keynote of OverDrive’s Digipalooza librarian and educator conference, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden emphasized the importance of having access to technology in all libraries and all communities, rural and urban, as the pandemic brought digital inequities into stark relief. Digital access, she said, is “an equalizer in culture.” “Part of my role now is to talk about how important it is to have those institutions and places for people to go, and the Library of Congress is going to be a partner in digitizing as much as we can,” she said. Hayden said that the pandemic “accelerated […]