NewsDesk: Budget Issues, Ebooks, Copyright, and More
Sep 1, 2010Seattle PL Survey Shows Generational Change
A new community survey conducted by the Seattle Public Library shows heavy use and satisfaction with services. It also provides evidence of significant generational change among patrons, as well as advice on promoting underused online services and assistance.
In addition, the survey points to significant variation in materials use. Stunningly, AV material (DVDs, music CDs, and audiobooks) grew from 19 percent of total circulation in 2000 to 49 percent in 2009. That figure does not include digital and downloadable media.
Asked to spend a hypothetical $10 on library resources, respondents directed $5.40 to books and print items, $3.14 to AV, and $2.49 to online resources. (The methodology does not average to $10.)
Despite Job Cuts, Dallas To Maintain Branch Hours
As part of a Dallas city budget balanced without tax-rate increases, the Dallas Public Library will be among the agencies taking the biggest hits, with a loss of nearly half the general fund–supported staff at the Central Library and nearly a quarter of the staff in the branches. Most losing jobs are in lower-skill positions.
Programming will all be grant funded, and the materials budget, reduced from $1.7 million to $1.1 million in the past year, will be $1.2 million. While operating hours at the Central Library will decline, the budget maintains hours at the 26 branches, where all staff will work the floor.
Ebook Report Suggests National Buying Pool
A new report released by the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA), "eBook Feasibility Study for Public Libraries," includes a call for a national library buying pool to purchase ebooks—a tactic likely to face pushback from publishers and distributors.
The slightly weaker (though far more prevalent) formulation offered is to increase pressure on vendors and publishers, thus pushing for lower prices, standardized formats, and fewer digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. But libraries face firm opposition from publishers, according to the report.
Michigan Voters Mostly Approve Library Millages
In low-turnout elections on August 3, voters in several Michigan communities overwhelmingly approved millages for their public library systems. Out of 32 referenda, only three failed.
Supporters of Warren Public Library approved a 20-year millage proposal by an almost two-to-one margin, allowing three branches to reopen August 12. Warren is the state's third largest city.
LC Expands Copyright Exception for Film Clips
The Library of Congress announced six exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), allowing users to get around technology restricting access to certain ebooks and film clips.
In the latter case, it broadened access to such clips, as requested by the Library Copyright Alliance. While the exception previously applied only to faculty who taught film or media studies, now faculty in any discipline can bypass copy-protection on DVDs in order to use film clips for educational purposes or for criticism or commentary. Moreover, it was extended to higher-ed film and media students.
In Jacksonville, Library Meets Budget Roadblocks
On Election Day in 2000, voters in Jacksonville, FL, approved a sales tax increase for the Better Jacksonville Plan, a $2.25 billion comprehensive growth management strategy that included $95 million for a new main library and $55 million for six new regional branches and improvements at several Jacksonville Public Library (JPL) locations.
Even as use has grown, Director Barbara Gubbin, who arrived in January 2005, has faced tight budgets for years.JPL has been forced to chop hours by more than half at five branches, relinquish Sunday service at regional libraries, and even institute a tough "Customer in Good Standing" policy that denies checkouts to any user with a book overdue or any outstanding fines or fees.
NPG Announces 4.5% Price Increase for Its Journals
Nature Publishing Group (NPG) announced that it is keeping its promise, made two years ago, to ensure that price increases on NPG-owned journals remained below seven percent per year for the next three years; the 2011 list price increase for NPG-owned journals will be 4.5 percent, up from 3.5 percent in this past year.
However, the Association of Research Libraries, in its February 2009 Statement to Scholarly Publishers on the Global Economic Crisis, suggested that publishers undertake "broad efforts to seek new efficiencies...[for] price reductions."
NEA Scales Back Funding for Big Read, in 5th Year
In its fifth year, beginning this month, the National Endowment for the Arts' (NEA) Big Read program has scaled back its support for community reading projects. The NEA will distribute 75 grants totaling $1 million, down from 2009–10 totals of 268 grants of $3.7 million, to support 31 selections from U.S. and world literature.
Elizabeth Stark, NEA spokeswoman, said that the practice of funding new programs at relatively high levels in their early years aims to encourage participation. As with all NEA awards, Big Read grants require matching funds.
OCLC Testing PDF-based Article ILL Service
OCLC is currently field-testing a new service called Direct Request for Articles, in which PDFs of complete journal articles are made available through OCLC's WorldCat Resource Sharing interlibrary loan service.
However, the number of articles that could be available using such a system may be relatively small owing to license agreements, which vary among libraries. According to one library, its collection encompasses approximately 20 percent of the titles held online.
GPO Hires Its First Preservation Librarian
The U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) has hired Yale University preservation librarian David Walls as its first preservation librarian, to aid GPO's ongoing digital initiatives. Walls will be involved with GPO's current migration of materials from its GPO Access interface, first launched in 1994, to its current Federal Digital System (FDsys).
The GPO wants FDsys not only to provide public access to government information but also to preserve that information as technology changes.
Buffalo Library Faces Budget Cut of 21%
The busier-than-ever Buffalo & Erie County Public Library (BECPL) recently learned it faces a 21 percent budget reduction for 2011 and is beginning to confront potential changes—including staffing configurations, work processes, and reduced services—to absorb the loss.
BECPL may not be able to afford to continue its distributed acquisitions and collection development, which enables branch staffers to make local decisions.
Physics Journals To Be Free in U.S. Public libraries
In an unusual twist on the move to free public access to journals, the American Physical Society will make all content in its nine journals back to 1893 free to in-building readers at participating U.S. public libraries. The collection includes more than 400,000 research papers.
Librarians can obtain access by signing an online site license (bit.ly/9KW61v) and providing valid IP addresses of public-use computers in their facilities. The program may be extended to public libraries in other countries but not to academic libraries.
Brooklyn Librarians Organize Skill Share Event
When three LJ Movers & Shakers—Lisa Chow (2010), Kerwin Pilgrim (2006), and Sandra Sajonas (2010)—received conditional layoff notices from the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), they got organized.
On July 13, more than 80 people from as far away as Philadelphia attended a Library Workers' Skill Share event (bit.ly/aQNZNQ ) at BPL's Central Library. The event was sponsored by several regional library groups. Energized and sometimes anxious attendees took advantage of speed mentoring, résumé review, and panel sessions from librarians, the Department of Labor, and Workforce 1.
Camden Library "Saved," But Fate Remains Unclear
While last month it looked like the Camden Free Public Library (CFPL), NJ, would be forced to close its three branches and sell off, donate, store, or discard all its materials and equipment, city officials soon began the process to have the larger and wealthier Camden County Library System take over the three endangered CFPL locations.
The good news was tempered by the recognition that the action could simply delay branch closings instead of stopping them entirely.
ARCHITECTURE ROUNDUP!
If you have a building project (academic or public) completed between July 1, 2009, and June 30, 2010, make sure it is included in LJ's annual December Architectural Issue. Public libraries can link to www.libraryjournal.com/PublicArch2010 for the online survey or a PDF of the paper form. The deadline is October 4, 2010. Academic projects can be submitted at www.libraryjournal.com/AcademicArch2010. The deadline for academic projects is October 12, 2010. If you need more information, email Bette-Lee Fox at blfox@mediasourceinc.com or call
646-380-0717.
The Freegal Debate and the Library Lending Model
The new download service from Library Ideas, Freegal, which allows libraries to buy access to and then distribute a set amount of DRM-free downloadable music to their patrons, has prompted much talk on discussion list Publib.
Librarians are interested in not only the practical aspects of managing the service (setting limits per patron and per week) but also in whether it represents a fundamental, perhaps dangerous shift in libraries' traditional models, given that with Freegal libraries are essentially a group buyer on behalf of patrons rather than a lender.
Library Ideas founder Brian Downing chimed in, suggesting that while his company did not start out trying to make the music downloads permanent, it is little different from the DRM-free audiobooks that libraries now offer. That prompted media librarian Myles Jaeschke to counter that people want to listen to music again and again.
For more, see the LJ Insider post at bit.ly/aTCPqA.
