Anecdata

...is my new favorite made-up word, a la Jason Griffey! Obviously, the HarperCollins/Overdrive debate has generated a lot of blow-back by librarians who feel that the doctrine of first sale is under attack (I mean, even Neil Gaiman is involved!), as well as calming voices and outright HC supporters. My favorite posts, however, came from Griffey and the awesomely-named BeerBrarian. The first posits that the 27-patron cut-off will have very little effect on most libraries bottom lines, as few books ever really circulate that often. The second contends that in the digital age, why do we need publishers, anyway? I must admit, I was a bit skeptical of this theory, until I heard an explanation from one of the panelists at the Day in the Life of a Forward-Thinking Librarian presentation last Friday. According to him, authors--like musicians before them--are soon going to start realizing that they can make more money selling $0.99 e-books to more people than by using the inflated pricing systems that publishers are currently pushing on them to make e-book analogous to print books. Judging by the success of established artists like Coldplay, who recently released their latest album on the web, I can see this trend accelerating in the near future. With the way the internet is currently blurring the lines between traditionally-vetted and self-published authors/ artists/ musicians, it makes sense that ye olde publishing industry is flailing around trying to find solid ground--even if that means violating the sacred statute of first sale.

Jason Griffey's post, on the other hand, I found to be much less useful, especially in light of the Pioneer Library System's YouTube demonstration. Griffey, as he freely admits, makes use more of "anecdata" than statistics. Additionally, his library seems to have unusually low circulation rates, in addition to being an academic library, which receives fewer checkouts of each title anyway. The PLS video, on the other hand, provides concrete and compelling--if cherry-picked-- data as to the longevity of popular HC print books versus their ebook counterparts. One hardcover, which admittedly had some spinal damage, had circulated 120 times. Of the five books profiled, the library would have had to buy 12 additional copies if they had been e-books. That's pretty convincing evidence of the arbitrary and unscientific nature of the 26-checkout rule.

As to the other readings, Mosley and the ALA code of Ethics, I'm not quite sure what to make of them. The Mosley reading is old enough that some of the specifics of her workshop has lost relevancy (students don't use the library in the same way today as they did in 1998). On the other hand, the need to liaise with professors handing out "library assignments" remains high, and the overall report provides a great example of a successful workshop, which was probably the reason we had to read it anyway. The article also made me think back to my favorite library assignment in undergrad, where my film instructor told us all to go out and watch a movie from the 1930s and then find the press-packet associated with that film (which our library had on microfilm), scan the materials into a PDF document, then write a paper on the marketing of that film and submit along with the PDF.

The Code of Ethics wasn't especially earth-shattering, either. It said basically what I expected it to, taking a hard line on censorship and patron privacy, as well as all other best-practice stuff that can be found in just about any institution's mission statement. I did, however, really appreciate statement VII: "We distinguish between our personal convictions and professional duties and do not allow our personal beliefs to interfere with fair representation of the aims of our institutions or the provision of access to their information resources." If only pharmacists had to adhere to this doctrine, instead of being able to deny birth control and Plan B to customers because of their religious beliefs. Libraries, like the medical system, have a duty to the public that goes beyond our own petty biases and preconceptions.

As for last week's class (actually two weeks ago because this post is mega-late), I quite enjoyed my group's book discussion. Between the nine of us, we took up the entire three-hour bloc, which speaks, I think, to our appreciation of the material. I especially enjoyed preparing the passage from Ovid, and that group's insightful questions. In evaluating our own performance, my group identified several areas we could improve upon for the upcoming workshop.