Published on Nov. 15, this blog post by Brewster Kahle has been read by many and if you haven't read it, you should. Kahle begins by writing:

Ever try to read a physical book passed down in your family from 100 years ago?  Probably worked well. Ever try reading an ebook you paid for 10 years ago?   Probably a different experience. From the leasing business model of mega publishers to physical device evolution to format obsolescence, digital books are fragile and threatened.

He then goes on to talk about what the Internet Archive and others do to keep digital works available and accessible. Yes, it takes a concerted effort of people and machinery, and that requires money. 

Looking back at my own blog posts, I know that I've written about digital preservation for a LONG time. It is not my constant focus, but I'm glad it is the focus of other folks who have the knowledge and fortitude to help our digital assets last for years to come. If you are able, support their work...if by no other way than helping them make the need for the work visible.

If you're interested in digital lending in a controlled environment or other areas where you might need DRM, you'll be interested in this about Readium LCP.

Readium LCP was developed five years ago to protect digital files from unauthorized distribution. Unlike proprietary platforms, the technology is open to anyone who wants to look inside the codebase and make improvements. It is a promising alternative for libraries and users wanting to avoid the limitations of traditional DRM. 

For more information, read the entire post.

 

If you - or someone you know - is considering proposing legislative action in your state to protect libraries from harmful eBook contacts, then you will be interested in this 9-page policy paper.  I'm pasting the executive summary below.  Follow the link for the entire paper.

Executive Summary

To mitigate the eBooks conundrum, Library Futures is recommending the adoption of state laws based on state contract law, state consumer protection, state procurement law, and contract preemption. The Library Futures model eBooks bill is based on the recent eBook legislation and resulting litigation, as outlined below. This model bill language is designed to nullify efforts by the publishers to use the threat of copyright and federal preemption lawsuits against the library community and the public, by harnessing the coercive power of the state to protect against
harmful eBook contracts.

Currently, a number of publishers and eBook aggregators are preventing libraries from acquiring eBooks with licensing (or purchasing) terms that make it impossible for libraries to fully meet their standard access and preservation missions. Often, eBook licenses offered to libraries come with many restrictions on use and/or are prohibitively expensive,1 or worse, sometimes are not available to libraries at any price.2 And when they are available, eBooks can cost a library three
to 10 times the consumer prices for the same eBook.3 Further, most libraries have little, if any, bargaining power and are rarely able to change the terms of the contracts offered to them by publishers. As a result, many libraries face financial and practical challenges in making eBooks available to their patrons and are unable to develop their own digital collections.

In response to the unavailability of equitable terms and fair pricing, library associations in several states are working on various solutions to the eBook problem for libraries. Each legislative solution is focused on providing a pathway for libraries to obtain licensing terms more suited to normal library use. As of June 2022, six states have active bills to address many of these issues. Library Futures supports policies that help libraries fulfill their essential role of making knowledge and culture available and accessible to all, and therefore supports legislation that aims to equitize the eBook marketplace. To that end, we have developed model legislative language that we believe will hold up against legal challenges.

This issue goes much deeper than just the unsustainably high prices for eBooks. Legally, traditional library lending is protected by the “first sale doctrine,” which establishes that ownership confers the right to lend. But new eBook formats have been used to frustrate the public purpose of first sale, and Library Futures believes that legislation is necessary to restore the mission of all libraries to acquire, preserve, maintain, and share materials, even with new technologies.

In this month's American Libraries Magazine "Letters of the Law," Mary Minor and  guest author Kyle K. Courtney "discuss the library ebooks landscape and state-level efforts to institutionalize fair licensing terms."  They are both steeped in law and libraries, so fitting that they tackled the following questions:

• What short- and long-term problems do libraries currently face with regard to ebooks? Why are states working on ebook bills for libraries?
• What do these state bills look like? How have they fared so far?
• Have there been attempts at the federal level to solve the ebooks issue? What comes next?

As you might imagine, even their brief answers are in-depth! Definitely worth reading.

On Monday, Tom Blake, Kyle Courtney, and I gave a webinar for ALA members entitled "Digitization and Copyright:  Lending Digitized Content in a Controlled Manner." Over 100 people attended this members only event, including people who were new to controlled digital lending.

Below are resources we gathered for participants. (I know there were some additional ones shared in chat.) We recognize that much has been written on this topic, so these are indeed starting points. For libraries, who want to use CDL to expand the use of their print collections, the CDLI group is a place to learn about implementation.

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A Starting Point for More Information
Getting Started

• Bailey, L. et al. (2018) Position Statement on Controlled Digital Lending.
• Courtney, K. K. & Hansen, D. R. (Sept. 2018). A White Paper on Controlled Digital Lending of Library Books
• Enis, M. (2018) Controlled Digital Lending Concept Gains Ground.
• Ex Libris. (n.d.) Implementing Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) Responsibly and Effectively: A Primer for Librarians.
• Library Futures. (2021) Controlled Digital Lending: Unlocking the Library’s Full Potential.
• OCLC. (2021) Controlled digital lending in two private academic libraries.

 Additional Information

• ARL. (July 2020) Association of Research Libraries Signs Statement in Support of Controlled Digital Lending.
• Association of Southeastern Research Libraries. (2021) Future Thinking: ASERL’s Guide to Controlled Digital Lending for Research Libraries.
• CDL Co-Op. (Oct. 2021) Statement on Using Controlled Digital Lending as a Mechanism for Interlibrary Loan.
• Chief Officers of State Library Agencies. (2020) Position Statement on Controlled Digital Lending by Libraries Endorsed by Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA).
• Controlled Digital Lending Implementers (CDLI) Google Site.
• NISO (Sept. 2021) NISO Awarded Mellon Funding for Controlled Digital Lending Project.

One of our U.S. Senators and a member of the House of Representatives are turning their attention to ebooks contracts with libraries, including the availability of ebooks and their pricing. Below is their press release which was issued today. In it, you can see the information they are demanding from the Big Five publishers.

The fact that Senator Wyden and Representative Eshoo are shining a light on this is huge! 

[Corrected 09/24/2021 to note that Eshoo is not a senator.]

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September 23,2021

Wyden, Eshoo Press Big Five Publishers on Costly, Overly Restrictive E-Book Contracts with Libraries

Libraries report facing financial difficulties making e-books available to patrons under expensive, limited leases from publishing houses

Washington, D.C. – Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and U.S. Representative Anna G. Eshoo, D-Calif., today pressed the big five book publishing houses – Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan – for answers regarding their contracts on e-books with libraries.

“E-books play a critical role in ensuring that libraries can fulfill their mission of providing broad and equitable access to information for all Americans, and it is imperative that libraries can continue their traditional lending functions as technology advances,” the members wrote.

E-books are typically offered by publishers under restrictive and expensive licensing agreements, unlike print books, which libraries only have to purchase once and lend as they see fit. E-books often have more constraints, from the number of times an e-book can be loaned to a time-limit on the license. The more flexibility in the agreement, the higher the price skyrockets, often at a much higher markup than what the average consumer pays for the same title. 

“Many libraries face financial and practical challenges in making e-books available to their patrons, which jeopardizes their ability to fulfill their mission…. Under these arrangements, libraries are forced to rent books through very restrictive agreements that look like leases,” the members continued.

The exorbitant costs and burdensome restrictions of these e-book contracts are draining resources from many local libraries, forcing them to make difficult choices to try and provide a consistent level of service and get books – print or electronic copies – in the hands of their patrons. However, with e-book contracts eating up ever larger portions of libraries’ budgets, the same level of service appears untenable. Wyden, whose mother worked as a librarian, understands that local libraries are the cornerstone of communities large and small, providing a hub of literacy and community-building resources to every American.

Wyden and Eshoo requested answers to the following questions by October 7:

1. For sales of physical books to academic and public libraries, please describe any restrictions you place on the sale related to potential exercise of copyright limitations and exceptions available to schools and libraries. 
1. For each year from 2018 to 2020, what was your total revenue for the sales of physical books to academic libraries and to public libraries, respectively?
2. For each year from 2018 to 2020, what was the total number of physical books sold to academic libraries and to public libraries, respectively?

1. For the licensing of e-books to academic and public libraries, please describe any restrictions you place on the license related to copyright limitations and exceptions available to schools and libraries. 
1. For each year from 2018 to 2020, what was your total revenue for the licensing of e-books to academic libraries and to public libraries, respectively?
2. For each year from 2018 to 2020, what was the total number of e-book licenses sold to academic libraries and to public libraries, respectively?

1. Please provide copies of your standard e-book licensing agreements for academic libraries, public libraries, and consumers, and please answer the following questions: 
1. Do you offer perpetual e-book licenses to academic libraries, public libraries, or consumers? If so, under what terms and conditions?
2. Do you offer sales of e-book files (with print-like rights of ownership, instead of licenses) to academic libraries, public libraries, or consumers?

1. Please summarize the lending restrictions included in your standard e-book licenses for both academic and public libraries, including:
1. the number of times and amount of time you allow an e-book to be loaned; and
2. the legal or technical restrictions you place on each loan.

1. Please summarize the standard e-book licensing terms, for both academic and public libraries, regarding your access to library data, including:
1. what reporting requirements are placed on libraries for acquiring these e-books;
2. whether you have any access to the lending logs of the e-books, including tracking any personal information associated with patrons and check-outs; and
3. what other data you have access to, including uses of the work (e.g., highlighting, notes, or annotations) and patrons’ data.

1. During COVID-19-related shutdowns, did you create any new licensing or permission regimes (e.g., permission to read aloud) for some or all of your e-book offerings?  If so, please describe the nature of the works covered by the change and the extent of the changes.

1. Please describe any legal actions—including cease and desist letters, threat of lawsuit, actual lawsuits, or imposition of restrictive licensing terms—you have taken since 2016 in response to the following activities: 
1. multiple checkouts of digital texts;
2. interlibrary loan;
3. controlled digital lending;
4. libraries making copies of owned works to lend digitally on a one-for-one basis;
5. schools making available electronic copies of books they physically own to students during the pandemic; and
6. e-reserves.

1. For each of your 100 most sold or licensed works to libraries in 2020, please provide the following data from 2020:
1. the average price of a physical copy of the work sold to libraries;
2. the average price of a physical copy of the work sold to consumers;
3. the average price of an e-book license to an academic library and the average number of loans permitted;
4. the average price of an e-book license to a public library and the average number of loans permitted;
5. the average price of an e-book license to consumers;
6. the profit margins for the sale of a physical copy of the book to consumers and to libraries;
7. the profit margins for the license of an electronic copy of the book to consumers and to libraries;
8. whether you allow libraries to purchase (rather than license) a digital copy of a book, and if so, at what average price.

1. For each of your 100 most sold or licensed works over the period of 2015 to 2019, please provide all the information requested in question 8 above, along with the year-over-year changes in the average sales price of a physical copy and the average licensing rate for a digital copy to consumers and to academic and public libraries.

A copy of the letter to Penguin Random House is here, Hachette is here, HarperCollins is here, Simon & Schuster is here and Macmillan is here.

Yesterday the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) announced that it has received funding support for "the development of a consensus framework for implementing controlled digital lending (CDL) of book content by libraries." Developing a framework was approved by members of NISO as a new initiative.  The announcement goes on to say:

Libraries exist to serve their communities, to distribute information and knowledge of all kinds to users of many types, abilities, and resources; circulation of content in all formats is a core feature of what libraries exist to do, and they have been doing so legally for centuries. CDL is an emerging “lend like print” approach, which enables libraries to loan digital versions of their print books while using technical controls to ensure a consistent “owned-to-loaned” ratio. This allows a library to lend the exact number of copies of a specific title it owns—regardless of format—with controls to prevent users from redistributing or copying the digitized version. The need for standards and best practices related to CDL was one of the three top ideas identified during the NISO Plus Conference that took place in February of this year.

Every library will benefit from NIO's efforts regarding digital lending in a controlled environment. I look forward to what they develop and I thank the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for supporting this effort.

You can read their entire statement on the NISO website.

 The Maryland State Legislation passed SB432/HB518, which (synopsis from the Senate bill):

Requiring a publisher who offers to license an electronic literary product to the public to also offer to license the electronic literary product to public libraries in the State on reasonable terms that would enable public libraries to provide library users with access to the electronic literary product; authorizing the license terms authorizing public libraries to provide access to electronic literary products to include certain limitations; defining "electronic literary product"; etc.

Many people worked on this bill, recognizing its importance to libraries. While others opposed it, the bill became law!  It was not signed by the Governor, which I think is unfortunate.  Rather he allowed it to become law without his endorsement.   

Why is it important? As Andrew Albanese states:

SB432 requires any publisher offering to license "an electronic literary product" to consumers in the state to also offer to license the content to public libraries "on reasonable terms" that would enable library users to have access. The bill is scheduled to take effect in January, 2022.

Yes, libraries will have access to the same ebooks that are offered to consumers. Amazing that this isn't already being done, right? But publishers wrongly see libraries as being in competition with them, and so some withhold their ebooks from libraries. This practice harms our communities. As Jonathan Band stated in his written testimony about this bill, "In other words, the bills prevent unreasonable discrimination against public libraries." (Quoted by Matt Enis)

Please note that this bill - and similar bills being introduced into other state legislatures - do not affect copyright. Rather they are looking to state law to create a level playing field for libraries.

I encourage you to read the Maryland bill and then look to see if groups in your state are advocating for something similar. Note that legislation has been proposed in New York and Rhodes Island.  I think as bills are proposed, each will learn from what happened in another state. For example, the Maryland bill may not have everything that another state would want. And every state will have to wrangle with the publishers and their interests, as they work to balance the interest of libraries and constituents. How will that affect wording, etc.? We will have to wait to see.

Resources

• Albanese, Andrew. (June 1, 2021) Maryland Library E-book Bill Becomes Law. Publisher's Weekly.
• Enis, Matt. (June 1, 2021) Maryland Passes Law Requiring Publishers to License Ebooks to Libraries Under “Reasonable Terms.” Library Journal.
• ALA. (June 1, 2021) ALA Joint Digital Content Working Group paper calls for improved access, licensing models, pricing to serve readers.

Last week, Lee Rainie - director, internet and technology, Pew Research Center - spoke several times at Syracuse University, including two public talks.  On Oct. 31, Rainie spoke on "Trust, Facts and Democracy: What the public is thinking in these tense times" (#TullyCenterRainie) and on Nov. 1 he spoke on the "Reckoning of Technology Companies."  As always, Rainie came loaded with facts, graphics, and stories.

There is much that I could write about what Rainie said, however, I encourage you to look at the research on the Pew website under "Internet & Technology".  There you will find publications, presentations, datasets and more.  What I do want to focus this post on is Rainie's response to a specific question.

Lee Rainie has been a frequent speaker at library conferences. With that in mind, I asked him a generic question about "access to information" and encourage him to take that question in any direction he wished.  Rainie listed off several things (not necessarily in order of importance):

• People are turning to their mobile devices first for information.  Some of that information is being delivered with a geographic context to it.  In other words, you are receiving was is important to you in the geographic spot you're in.
• People are relying on alerts to inform them of what is going on. Alerts are a big part of the systems we're now using.  Relying on alerts means that people are doing less browsing.
• This is a rise in app usage (which goes along with the two points above), which also means that people trust apps. Trust was something Rainie returned to again and again in his presentations.
• People are engaging in multi-screen experiences.  This might mean watching the news on one screen, for example, while surfing/searching on another in an effort to make sense of what is happening ("meaning making").
• We're engaging in synthesized media experiences, which means that what we are receiving is being synthesized by someone or something.  "Someone" else is curating for us and deciding what we will see.
• We are interacting with technology more by voice (voice interfaces). 
• Print books - and to some extent print journals - have had a staying power that we did not anticipate. We assumed that digital books (ebooks) would become dominant, but that has not been the case.

One of the take-aways from Rainie's talks was that which social media platforms we're using is changing.  Usage is different by age group and area of the world (e.g., WeChat).  Some platforms, which we think are heavily used, aren't as popular as we think (e.g., Twitter).  Pew is starting to collect data specifically on YouTube and we can see from this chart how popular it is (U.S. data). If we are trying to deliver a message that we want heard, we need to seriously think of which platform the "receivers" are using.  For example, young people are turning away from Facebook, so if we're trying to reach them, we need to go where they are now.


My apologies for not having a clearer image of this slide.

Ebook publishers are changing how the license ebooks to libraries.  These two podcast episodes from Beyond the Book detail those recent changes.  As you might expect, the changes do not necessarily favor libraries or library patrons.

Tor Books, a science fiction and fantasy publisher and division of Macmillan, has moved to change its “e-book lending model to libraries as part of a test program to determine the impact of e-lending on retail sales,” reports Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer. Beginning this month, newly-released titles will not be available until four months after the publication date. The “embargo” practice has sparked a backlash by librarians.

“It’s yet another wrinkle in an already complex lending scheme that librarians must manage, and I think what is bothering librarians most of all is that [the change] came without warning,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“I spoke to Michael Blackwell, a librarian in Maryland who is one of the organizers of ReadersFirst, a coalition of some 300 libraries dedicated to improving e-book access and services for public library users. He called the move a ‘giant leap backwards’ for libraries and disputed the idea that library e-book lending is hurting Tor’s retail e-book sales.”

In what the publisher called “good news” for libraries and their patrons, Penguin Random House has announced that as of October 1, 2018, the house is changing its e-book lending licenses for public libraries in the U.S. The shift moves access to book titles from a “perpetual access” model (where libraries pay a higher price but retain access to the e-book forever) to a “metered model” (with lower prices on e-books that expire after two years).

“PRH top titles today are capped at $65 for a ‘perpetual access e-book license. The new top price will be $55. Lower prices are a good thing—but a $10 drop is not enough librarians say, especially if they have the burden now of relicensing John Grisham titles,” Andrew Albanese, Publishers Weekly senior writer, reports.

“What librarians really wanted from PRH was a choice. They want to be able to own a perpetual access copy or two for the collection at whatever price, and then add [more copies of the same title] to meet periods of high demand without having to buy more perpetual access copies,” Albanese tells CCC’s Chris Kenneally.

“Much of what publishers do with library e-book pricing is about defending other markets, but I think that’s shortsighted and self-defeating. If anything comes out of these changes I hope it will be to kick up a discussion about why digital readers in libraries are treated differently,” he adds.

Christopher Kenneally recently did an interview Brad Turner, the Benetech Vice President, who is overseeing the company’s Global Literacy Program.  Benetech's mission is to help people with print disabilities and other learning challenges have access to materials in an accessible format.  Turner notes that 3% and 5% of the general population need material in an accessible format, which translates into millions of people in the U.S. and worldwide.

I found this conversation to be quite interesting. First, it interested me because because I had not heard of Benetech before. Second, I know how important meeting the accessibility needs of our community is.  Acquiring material for your library does not automatically mean that everyone in your community can use it.  The person may not be able to use the material's native format.  Third, I know that this work has become easier because content can be placed in a digital format or is being created in a digital format.   In fact, Benetech was founded by someone interested in pattern recognition, which is the foundation of OCR.

If you're interested in accessibility or how a rocket scientist got involved in making print accessible, then I hope you will listen to or read the interview. This 15-minute interview is available as audio and text on the Beyond the Book website.

David Ferriero and John Palfrey

The American Library Association released the 2014 State of America’s Libraries Report this week, which is National Library Week (April 13– 19). Yesterday I commented on the Academic Libraries section.  Today I want to look at the section on ebooks and copyright, which reminds us of what we already know.  Ebooks are gaining in popularity, yet it is difficult for libraries to acquire and circulate them.  Jeannette Woodward, who has authored books on this topics, suggests that libraries work together to negotiate with publishers, rather than acting like islands unto themselves.

This section of the report also reminds of us copyright news from 2013, such as:

And in November 2013, after eight years of litigation, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York upheld the fair use doctrine when it dismissed Authors Guild v. Google, a case that questioned the legality of Google’s searchable book database. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin’s decision protects the Google database that allows the public to search more than 20 million books.

When this case began in 2005, it garnered a lot of attention including news articles, podcasts, blog posts, and more.  I don't think as many people noticed its conclusion.  Forbes noted that this decision is a big deal because:

• It adds to the small body of search engine law.
• The case rejects concerns about analog-to-digital conversion.
• Google Books is great. 
• The ruling extends Google’s market leadership.

However, a number of reasons also point to it not be a big deal, including that this decision is likely not going to help anyone except Google.  And...of course, it might be appealed.

This section of the report also notes two victories for those with visual impairments.  First, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) finalized the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons who are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled.  Second, the ability of those who are blind, visually impaired, or have a physical disability to be able to download audio and braille books to their mobile devices, if they are registered with the LoC’s National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS). Ensuring that people with visual impairments have the same access to books and other materials, as the rest of us, is a big deal. They should be able to access the same information as the rest of us.

Finally, I'm sure that others are looking at this report and writing about it.  My colleague, Paul Signorelli, wrote these two posts, which you may find of interest:

• The State of America’s Libraries 2014: Libraries, Community Engagement, and Learning
• The State of America’s Libraries 2014: Libraries, Social Networking, and Learning

If you find other blog posts, that are delving into the sections of this report, please let me know.

If you have not paid attention, then you likely don't know that there has been litigation over the consumer price of ebooks and whether there has been price fixing. In a Publishers Weekly article:

According to a recent filing, publishers have paid a total of $166,158,426 to settle state and consumer e-book price fixing charges, including an additional $3,909,000 to settle consumer claims in Minnesota.  (Full article here.)

Beyond the Book has a podcast on the verdict in the Apple lawsuit, which is worth listening to (13 minutes). The person interviewed in that podcast, Andrew Albanese, has written a book on this topic entitled The Battle of $9.99: How Apple, Amazon, and the Big Six Publishers Changed the E-Book Business Overnight, which is an ebook ($1.99).

These lawsuits have nothing to do with copyright; however, the price paid for an ebook does impact the copyright fees that might be paid to an author.

Before attending the Computers in Libraries (CIL) Conference, I went to the Sackler Gallery to view the Cyrus Cylinder, which is from 500 BCE.  The cylinder was important then because it communicated King Cyrus' decree to free those that Babylon had held captive.  Because it also proclaimed religious freedom and a respect for different cultures, it has been important to many since then.  Viewing this 2600 year old clay cylinder was a nice precursor to attending the conference, where we discussed technology, while each of us carried and used technology.  During the conference, I kept thinking about what we are leaving behind now as evidence of our existence and decisions, and whether those items will last.

Broadband Access - Internet access at CIL was the best that it has even been, thanks to the Washington Hilton's updated Internet connection.  However, we recognize that there are still areas of the country that do not have good, reliable high-speed Internet access.  On April 10, Michael Sauers (Nebraska), Heather Braum (Kansas) and Patrick Sweeney (California) left the conference and went to the Broadband of America meeting on Capitol Hill.  Heather blogged the meeting (here and here).  She was able to ask about the role of libraries, and remind those in attendance that we - libraries and librarians - have an important role to play in our communities in terms of Internet access and training people how to use that access. And while this was not related to the conference, I think it is an excellent example of taking advantage of where you are physically, as well as a great example of advocacy.

Digitization - I attended two sessions that were related to digitization.  The session on "Digitizing Archives" included one speaker who talked about our personal archives.  For those involved in digitization, this was a good reminder of what we know.  For those who are not involved in digitization (or still newbies), there were likely helpful tidbits, especially in regards to creating a personal archive (a topic that libraries can be teaching their patrons about).

The second session that was related to digitization was "Build-a-Book Workshop: Starting eBook Publishing at Your Library."  How do you create your own digital books?  One way is to digitize text created on paper by the library or users, or in the public domain.  Douglas Uhlmann didn't spend a lot of time on that idea, since his session needed to cover a lot of ground, but it would good to hear that mention.

Innovation - [This is a follow-up to my previous blog post on  this.]  The CIL Sunrise session hosted by Heather Braum, James King and I generated ideas on innovative actions that could be taken this year in order to remain relevant with a library's target audiences.  We captured some of the ideas generated with my iPhone, while other ideas where tweeted (and then captured using SearchHash.com and turned into a PDF).

 






Addendum (4/21/2013): James King captured these notes from the wrap-up of the brainstorming session:  

• Personalize the web site for each user
• eContent vending machines
•  open database access to the community with no authentication required
• Give up classification systems and let patrons shelve books where it makes sense to them
• Adjust culture to “yes” as a default, rather than “no”
• Kill failing projects rather than letting them linger
• Loan mobile devices
• Optimize to ePubs formats
• Provide iPod based content
• Make site and service more personal rather than institutional (apply a name and a face to the services rather than a generic organizational name)

#CILSU - 17 library and information science students from Syracuse University (SU) attended CIL.  This is the third time I've been with a group of SU students at a library conference, and I can tell you that each time brings me joy.  I enjoy hearing what is attracting their attention and what they are learning.  I like watching them as they get excited over everything!  I also like hearing from the other attendees, who often get jazzed from interacting with LIS students.  Most of all, I like knowing that these emerging professionals are making connections that may impact the rest of their lives.


Wrap-Up - I need to mention some people, topics and things that caught my eye.

• Michael Edson, who did slam poetry has his presentation Tuesday evening.  (A version of it is in YouTube.)  Michael, who spoke Monday afternoon and delivered a keynote at last year's CIL, has a lot to say and is worth listening to.
• Forrest Foster, who spoke on using Blog Talk Radio to interview people about learning commons.  His programs helped him learn about the topic and have been accessed thousands of time by others. 
• Robyn Andrews, who told a compelling story about how her academic library received iPads and how they have loaned them out.
• Brian Pichman, who is using really cool technology with teenagers and who brought some of it, so we could play with it!  (I'm sure the hotel could not have envisioned night-time laser tag on their patio.)
• Backdraft - a Twitter tool that allows you to write tweets in advance and then release them on demand.  This is great for speakers, who might want to tweet specific tidbits during their talk.  I could also see this for tweeting during an event.  Backdraft works on mobile devices.
• SearchHash - This is an online Twitter tool that allows you to search for and save tweets. You can see an example of it above. 
• Brent Leary, who was Monday's keynote and who spoke on community engagement.
• Daniel Rasmus, who was Wednesday's keynote and talk about the future.  He said that even though we can't predict the future, we should be able to have a robust conversation about it...and I like that!
• The future - Besides Daniel Rasmus, there was an important mention of the future in a humorous presentation on Tuesday evening. Yes, there will be a librarian uprising in 2017!

I'm amazed that I wrote 21 blog posts in three days.  These were mostly "live blogging", which means that I was really taking notes that could be published online.  My custom blog template does not allow you to view all of them at once, so here is a list for your convenience.

April 8 (Monday):

• #CILDC : Brent Leary, Evolving Community Engagement: What Would Amazon & Google Do?
• #CILDC : BYOD - Kateri Abeyta
• #CILDC : BYOD Policies for Patrons/Users and Staff
• #CILDC : Brian Pichman, Innovative Technologies
• #CILDC : Augmented Reality and Next-Gen Libraries
• #CILDC : Libraries, Archives and Museums: Collaboration on a Large Scale, part 1
• #CILDC : Libraries, Archives and Museums: Collaboration on a Large Scale, part 2
• #CILDC : Libraries, Archives and Museums: Collaboration on a Large Scale, part 3

April 9 (Tuesday):

• #CILDC : Sunrise Session - Enabling Innovation
• #CILDC : Storm Cunningham, Libraries as Community Revitalizers
• #CILDC : Management Metrics that Work
• #CILDC : Build-a-Book Workshop: Starting eBook Publishing at Your Library, Douglas Uhlmann
• #CILDC : UX (user experience) and Accessibility
• #CILDC : Digitizing Archives
• #CILDC : New and Innovative Tech (Tuesday evening session)

April 10 (Wednesday): 

• #CILDC : Daniel Rasmus, Uncertainty & Imagination: Evolving Libraries Through Technology
• #CILDC : Patron-Driven Acquisition (PDA): Workflow and Perception
• #CILDC : SharePoint & WordPress: What's in it for Faculty and Staff?
• #CILDC : Evolving Tech Support to Manage & Discover E-Resources
• #CILDC : There's an App for that!
• #CILDC : Blog Talk Radio: Connect, Collaborate & Enthuse!, Forrest Foster