Reading, libraries, eBooks

Guardian: the battle of Britain’s libraries. New Birmingham library features

Like public parks, libraries are particularly valuable in capitalist cityscapes, where you are incessantly encouraged to keep moving, keep spending – and don’t even think about doing anything economically unproductive. (Figures released by the Valuation Office Agency last month showed that since 1997 there has been a 1,150% rise in the number of lap-dancing clubs in Britain, and a 6% decline in the number of libraries.)

In partnership with Google, 137 years of Popular Science archives go digital and free

Popular Science archive: the place to search for jetpacks

Here’s an interesting stat. eBooks outnumber games in the iPhone App Store

Internet Archive: Redesigned Open Library Goes Live, Some Really Impressive Improvements
Resource Shelf

Worldcat: search many libraries at once for any item & find nearest
Worldcat

Department for Culture, Media, and Sport publishes The Modernisation of Public Libraries: A Policy Statement.

Resourceshelf

The paper aims to help libraries grasp the opportunities of digital technology, respond to the decline in use of existing services, the current economic climate and the public’s expectation of more customer-focused public services.
DCMS

Free: Why Authors are Giving Books Away on the Internet

With increasing frequency, authors in academic and non-academic fields are releasing their books for free digital distribution. Anecdotal evidence suggests that exposure to both authors and books increases when books are available as free downloads, and that print sales are not negatively affected. Data from our book sale comparison suggest that in the case we studied, free digital distribution did not negatively affect sales.

Hilton, J. & Wiley, D. (2010). Free: Why authors are giving books away on the Internet. Tech Trends, 54(2)
Wiley & Hilton paper

Copyright for Librarians

Copyright for Librarians is a joint project of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Electronic Information for Libraries (eIFL), a consortium of libraries from 50 countries in Africa, Asia and Europe. The goal of the project is to provide librarians in developing and transitional countries information concerning copyright law. More specifically, it aspires to inform librarians concerning: