Wednesday, March 09, 2011

The American Library Association takes on self-destructing eBooks

The American Library Association has commissioned two new task forces to investigate the future of ebooks in libraries: the Equitable Access to Electronic Content Task Force and the E-book Task Force. The objective is to come up with a nationwide, coherent strategy to address the fact that some publishers will not make their books available as lendable ebooks, while others require ebooks to be packaged in formats that self-destruct after a certain number of checkouts. Among other things, the ALA states the task forces will:

  • Work to establish meetings between ALA leadership and publisher and author associations to discuss model lending and purchase options for libraries.

  • Establish mechanisms for interactive and ongoing communication for ALA members to voice concerns and pose questions to ALA leadership.

  • Establish communication and solicit input with other ALA member divisions and units, including the Office for Intellectual Freedom.
Full text of the press release.

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