An open letter

October 6, 2011
Online world

Dear Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Harper Collins, Ebrary, EBSCO, and any other publisher/vendor dealing in ebooks (which is probably a good number of y'all),

I'm sure by now you all are tired of hearing from libraries and librarians about ebooks.  I mean I don't even really need to list what's been said about y'all do I?  But I want to take a bit of a different tact so please do keep reading.

First of all let's just go ahead and agree that both sides--publishers/vendors and libraries/librarians--need to work together on this, because neither of us can live without the other.  And yes I said that you need us.  Because let's go ahead and be honest when someone gets confused about how their ereader works, how to get library ebooks on it, how to use the thing...who do they really come to?  That's right, they very often come and visit their local library.  They know (or figure) that we should know how the thing works and also be able to recommend more great books to them.  And where would these folks find out about more books without us?  But we need y'all as well.  Ebooks, whether people like it or not, are a big part of the future of library world and y'all make them.  So we need to work together on this.

So what now?  Well how about we come up with a couple of compromises for both sides here.

I'll start with the library side first.
1)Getting paid and how often:
OK I'll admit HarperCollins had a good point a while back about ebooks not wearing out like regular books and the desire to get paid again, just as if a replacement copy had been ordered.  I'll also state that the checkout limitation was completely and utterly ludicrous.  So why not come up with something different?

How about an annual charge for the books.  And no I don't mean the full cost or limitations on how many times it can be checked out.  Let's just talk strictly about books that are in the $8-$25 range, which are popular books, best sellers, stuff that a large number of people are likely to read.  What about an annual fee (after the first year) per book of .50-$2.00 depending upon the retail price of the book?  That way a library has it for a year, they get a chance to look at the circulation of it and decide whether or not they want to keep it, kinda of like we do now.  If they do keep it they pay a small charge and it goes to you.

Now granted we get a lot of things through packages through vendors so things might need to change there as well (with vendors offering the chance to switch out books perhaps,) but that can be a conversation down the line.

2) Data
Let's just go ahead and be honest we all know that you collect data (some of you a bit more than others.)  And libraries are loathe to get up lots of data, because we try to protect our patrons.  But what if we compromise a bit? Let's strip out the patron name and the street address out of the data.  That way you can't associate it with one person and if the government decides to go crazy, you don't have that information to give them.  You still get some info that's useful to you and we make sure that we continue to protect our patrons privacy.

What you need to change:
1) Format, and this is the big one:
This idea that you'll only provide ebooks in one format or your ebook reader will only read one format it's ludicrous.  Y'all are acting like this is the battle between Beta player and VHS instead of what it really is, a battle between Sony and Samsung players.

Look the format is already out there, epub, just go ahead and use it.  Let people read their books on whatever device they have and not trying to force them into having only your device and no other.  DVD's companies don't do this.  I mean seriously can you imagine the chaos if you had to have 10 different DVD players to enjoy your favorite movie?

I get it, really I do.  You want to get people to buy your device.  But why not get them to buy your device based upon what it offers, not that they have to buy their books just from you.  And for their books?  Let them come to you because they know what service that you offer and the price that you can offer on ebooks.  Because come on now, they're buying their ebooks based on that anyway.

1a)Vendors and ebook readers:
This is a subset of the first conversation, but y'all seriously? You're going to let us buy ebooks and then say "sorry you can only read it on the computer."  That kind of defeats the purpose of an ebook, you know that right?  So let's start making it so that we can read ebooks on ebook readers without having to download a piece of software that doesn't work on every ebook read (looking at one of you in particular here.)  We can find a way to make it work.  You know it. I know it. So let's make it happen.

2) Talk to us:
And yes I mean really go out there and talk to us.  And no the librarians that are on you staff don't count.  Nothing against them, but once they start working for you doesn't that kinda of limit their experience with interacting with patrons on a daily basis?  Form a group.  Include people that you know are pissed off at you, but are reasonable (yes there are some out there.)  Get our input.  Include the input of your customer base.  Share it.

We can't exist in a bubble and it's time we both stopped living in aspects of them.

Now I'm only one librarian and I can't speak for them all so this is just me talking.  But let's just keep talking and see where it goes?  What do you say?

Where do we go from here?

I've seen quite a few things recently about the future of libraries...ok almost everything I see is about the future of libraries and how we're either in competition with Amazon, Google is going to kill libraries,  Amazon is destroying us, or some unknown alien race is going to show up and displace libraries and librarians with their galactic encyclopedia.  And all of this is interesting...but why do we keep worrying about who or what we're in competition with?  Yes there are a lot of different places that offer some of the same services that we do, but there's nothing that offers everything that we do.  We keep talking about how libraries aren't just the brick and mortar buildings, that we're the resources, we're the digital, and most importantly we're the people who can help our users find what they need.  That we're all of these different things that work together to become an integral part of the community.  That we know the people that come in our library by name.  That we know what resources they need.

Well can Amazon offer that?  Can Google offer it?  No they can't.  They can make recommendations via computer algorithms, but they can't be everything that a library can be.  They don't have people there to ask them how they're doing or how their pet is.  Or know their homework assignment because they talked to the professor or teacher last week.  These businesses, these companies, these aliens, these whatever can only do part of what we do.  We can do so much more.

Can we learn from these companies though? Sure.  1st lesson:  Apple, Amazon, Google and the others didn't get to where they were by coming out in public and wailing that the next company over was going to put them out of business.  They looked at the world around them and said "f'it.  we can do better than that" (not a direct quote by the way) and went out and made it better.  So what do we do?  We go out and make it better (which we have been doing.)  We've just got to start following the 2nd lesson which is...

2nd lesson:  Amazon, Apple, and Google didn't stand on the sidelines and mumble about how they did it better.  They shouted it from the rooftops and didn't let themselves be pushed out of the way.   So let's stop spending our energy on worrying how x is going to put us out of business and start focusing on learning from them and improving what they can offer.  So that we can better serve our community.  Our users.  Those people that we know by name (even if we sometimes wish we didn't.) 

3rd lesson:   Stop letting other people take credit for the things that we've done and show our users, show the people that fund us just how great we really are.  Talk to the press, tell them what we're doing, what we've done and how we've influenced the world. We've got to stop doing things the same way and go out there and promote ourselves. 

It's a new age and we're not going anywhere.  Let's show the world that.

Building my own library

One of the things that I've thought off and on about for the last couple of years is starting my own library. I mean think about it: it would be fun to recruit your ideal staff, to decide how to run things, what the library would contain, and just the general shape and structure. I mean who wouldn't want to do that right? It was only today that I actually thought about what the library would look like (all because a friend asked, they know who they are.)

So first thing to do is not worry about things like money, land space, etc. Now some would say would get hung up on the user population, but I'm just going to say mine is the "ideal population" of the library I'm building. In other words I'm just going to pretend my library fits what the population needs. I'm just going to give a rough sketch cause if I think about it too much, I'll never post this.

So I would create my library in an area like Asheville, NC. I've always loved the area and seems to have an interesting and diverse population. It would be a public library open to everyone.

First thing I'd do is I'd want a partnership with local museums. The library wouldn't share staff or building space, but would all be in the same block and and would be able to collaborate on stuff together, i.e. when art museum has a display on Van Gogh, the library could prepare a book display on what's going on. Maybe the buildings would even connect by cool underground tunnels to get from one area to the next and exits would take you to various gardens. The library would be built with wireless, plenty of outlet to plug into scattered throughout. Furniture would be comfortable, sturdy, with some pieces being easy to move (like the teen's area.) Some of this furniture would also have outlets within them so that you could plug in your laptop.

Different sections in the library would include: Childrens, teens, adult, local history room, museum/gallery room (information related to museum on the local block), and technology room. Children's and teen's I'd leave to someone else to design, but they'd have the support they need to make them fun and exciting places. Same with local history room. The adult area, would just be a place where the adults could sit back for a bit and enjoy the newspaper or a good book. It would be on the opposite side of the library from Childrens/teens (no they wouldn't be able to wander off and leave their kids alone). The museum/gallery room would be information for special exhibits, books that related to what was going on, ephemeral material, etc. There would be computers scattered throughout for people to access the internet and the catalog.

The technology room would be where I spent a good bit of time. This would be the area where media items (DVD, CD's, etc) are, where there would be a viewing area for people to watch listen to these items, and equipment would be. But it would be so much more! It would be a play ground of sorts where people could try out different cameras, record their own movie, record podcasts, etc. Equipment would be there and people to staff it all hours the library is open so that they can get help if they need it. It would be a great place to just learn something new. Classes would be offered on a wide range of topics, including some led by the patrons! Why not let the teens show the parents how to create their own Facebook/Myspace page.

Staffing would be knowledgeable, enthusiastic staffing, that would want to be there. I'd poach Twitter/Friendfeed/Blog friends from other libraries. I'd hire someone else to run the library and I'd spend my time playing in the technology room. Even though someone else would run the library I'd set a few ground rules.
1st communication is important. That will be stressed to everyone that is hired. You can't communicate you can't work at my library.
2nd all employees have a say in policy. Sure there will have to be some things that have to be kept quiet at first (personal matters mainly), but I want the library to be as open as possible. No hiding new policies. If we're going to change the food policy, employees get to have some sort of say in it or at least know about it before it's launched.
3rd no burying one's head in the sand. If somethings not working don't hide that its not working or try to ignore it. Own up to it, explore options, and if it requires a change in personal it happens. Loyalty is great, but being loyal to someone just because they've been there 15 years isn't a good thing. If they can't cut it at the job anymore they either need to be reassigned or find a new place to work (harsh I know, but true.).
4th continuing education is important. Library will support as much as possible. Enough said.
5th Staff are treated like the professionals they are. I don't care if they don't have a degree, they help keep the library running and are important to it being open. Don't treat someone poorly just because they don't have the MLIS.

I've skipped over focusing on what the collection would be like and other things mostly because if I tried to cover everything this would be a 50 page long blog post and no one would read that. So did I miss anything really important? What would your library be like if you could create it?