E-book changes...sort of

[EDIT: 10/27]
I read this weekend that Amazon is allowing the lending of Kindle e-books.  My first thought was, "Really?  Because they have been really tight-fisted about content control to date."  So, as I read a bit further into the CNET article I had stumbled across and found the "gotcha".  Mainly what they are allowing, for some but not all e-books, is the opportunity to share a book once, as in "only once...ever".

Honestly, I find this whole new wave of the e-book to be quite frustrating.  It isn't that I'm secretly shedding tears at the impending death of paper books (if that even happens).  It is mostly that I can't stand the fact that just like software, if we aren't careful, we will no longer "own" the books we buy.  We will license a copy.  That's really what Amazon et.al. are doing - they are selling licenses to "intellectual property" produced by writers.  Regardless of the fate of libraries or even used book shops, the idea that a book MUST be purchased each time in order to be shared is not healthy for for authors, readers, or I think even publishers, (though it might help a small percentage of bottom lines).

My personal experience with reading (especially fiction), new authors, and book-buying has been one that, with very few exceptions, has gone like this:  Someone directs me to a title or an author they have read.  I borrow that persons copy or go to the library and check it out.  If I like the author, I look for more and often buy and also recommend to others.  Very rarely will I go out and buy a book on recommendation.  Perhaps I'm cheap.  Perhaps I've read too much so-so writing.  Perhaps I "just don't get it".  I am not sure.  I am sure that I still don't think the ebook concept is fully fleshed out.

UPDATE:  I read this interesting article in Consumerist this morning, posted on a library email list.  Basically, another problem with using your e-reader for anything other than viewing "licensed" material.  Again, it sounds like I am anti-ebook when I am not.  But there are some major issues to be aware of along with some fundamental questions that need to be answered before I feel comfortable with e-books becoming a major medium.

Book Review - Peter Watts' Blindsight

A friend of mine, Jake, who has read more than just about anyone I know, recommended this book.  It is a fascinating tale of first alien contact where a little way in, one gets a foreboding sense that the main characters have already lost the game before their journey to the meet-up even began.  Watts is definitely in the Stephen Hawking camp when it comes to alien contact.

The main characters are interesting folks - humans carved up, reshaped, and reworked as sort-of super humans plus one vampire.  Despite my being thoroughly tired of the much-abused vampire as a character, I thought Blindsight was a great book with a great vampire.  Peter Watts (not, as Wikipedia takes pains to point out, the Peter Watts of Mott the Hoople fame) writes hard science fiction that includes a great yarn and many good turns of phrase allowing someone like me the luxury of not worrying too much about failing to understand all the deep science-y stuff.  After all, I am just a humble librarian.  Even the appendix on the "origin" of vampires was so heavily cited with actual studies that it seems like a reasonable idea that we'd send one on a space voyage to meet aliens.

Blindsight came out in 2006, so I feel a little behind the curve.  Now I'm going to go back and try out Starfish, Watts' first novel from 2000.  Anyway, I would recommend Blindsight if you like a good hard science sci-fi tale.  Plus there's this to look forward too.

Prairie Book Festival

Nearly an entire month without a post - shame on me!  I use this blog to get crazy ideas out of my head, mull, blather on, etc.  Lately though, it seems like I haven't even had time to type for 15 minutes.  My excuse is that we have had a tremendous amount of projects going at the Hutchinson Public Library, the main one for me being the Prairie Book Festival which happened this past Saturday.  This was the inaugural PBF and we hope there will be more to come.  The Hutchinson News had a nice write-up for us on Sunday.

We had a good crowd for a first-time event, despite this:

A nice line of windy, hail-making storms!

The storms arrived around 2:45-3pm and closed down our vendor area a little early, but we moved the remaining authors inside, relocated the storyteller to the storytime room, moved the music into the circulation area and carried right on to the end.

I truly appreciate all of our hard-working staff, volunteers, our great Friends of the Library group, and especially our Prairie Book Festival steering committee - many members of which fall in more than one of the groups mentioned!  They did a fantastic job and produced something great upon which we can build.

Here are a few of the photos taken throughout the day:

Author Carol Murray

Author Jim Hoy

Under the Author Tent

The Anthony Panek Group playing jazz

Book Festival, Reviews and ... Other

Less than one month to go!  The Prairie Book Festival has been getting a lot of great press - thank you Hutchinson News!

I just finished up the Dalai Lama's, Toward a True Kinship of Faiths subtitled How the World's Religions Can Come Together.  It was a fairly fast read and the points made are, in my opinion, spot on.  The similarities in the world's major religions on which the Dalai Lama focuses revolve around compassion for fellow man.  He goes on to show how it is possible to recognize other faiths as valid while remaining true to one's own faith.

Not quite a week ago, I (along with several other library directors) met with the new State Librarian of Kansas, Jo Budler, to discuss several issues of importance to libraries.  Among our discussion points were the state's downloadable audio books program, the state-wide database selection, and the possibilities for future collaboration in other areas.  Mainly, I was glad to see an interest in consensus building at the state level - something that has been sorely lacking in my opinion the few years I have been here.  It seems that there might be some interest among the directors of similar-sized libraries to continue meeting on a regular basis, either in person or through electronic means.  This too was welcome news to me as, again, I know that I can benefit as a director from collaboration and sharing of information.

"The Web" and "The Internet" aren't the same?

Nope.  They aren't.  The Internet has been around much longer than the World Wide Web, of "www" fame.  The Internet can be thought of as the nuts and bolts - the hardware - that makes the Web possible.  The web is a protocol, a way of transferring information using the Internet.  While the Web dominated for a while, it was never the only means of transferring information on the Internet and now its dominance is clearly on the wane.

I usually avoid Wired articles, but this one is a good summary of what has happened in the past few years.  The world of the web browser is waning ( I love alliteration!)  As the wired article points out, we use the Internet - the wires, routers, servers and other hardware - more than ever.  But we use them with specialized tools for specific purposes.  This is an interesting development for libraries, I think.

It lends a sense of urgency, in my opinion, to the library discussions about how to serve the mobile users in our service areas.  Tools like Seattle Public Library's catalog app will be a "must have" for local libraries.  I think we'll have to come up with something for HPL soon!

The other area of concern I see; one that will hit libraries in the pocketbook, is dealing with online published content.  This article talks about the issues much more succinctly than I can and probably more clearly.  Basically, the Web equals wide-open anything-goes forum and the tailored app-based model equals controlled revenue generation, which is the obvious choice for media outlets.

I guess the real question is not, "What happens to the Web?" but looking ahead, "How do we deal with an apps-based online world and what's going to come after that?"

Reading is alive in Hutchinson

While we haven't quite reached the deadline for turning in completed reading logs for the children's program, all the programs this summer were among the best for us in the last 5 years.  We had 1,339 children signed up and 507 of them have turned in completed logs with 2 weeks remaining in the program.  The requirement for completion is 10 books, so that means over 5,000 books were read in June and July!

When you add in the YA (young adult) and adult reading programs, with 550 and 600+ books recorded respectively, HPL readers were reading (in a verifiable way) at a rate of 102.5 books per day during the reading programs.

I know there were many thousands more books checked out during those months, but I am heartened that reading remains such a strong pastime.  Quite a body of research, such as this 3-year study, suggest that simply giving books to children (and allowing them to choose topics that interested them) is less expensive and potentially more effective than summer school.

Imagine all the students who could be helped by combining the forces of the public school systems and the well-established, strong summer programs offered for free at public libraries.  After all, our summer storytimes (there were 32 of them) averaged 55 children per session.

Pirates!

I just finished reading Scurvy Goonda by Chris McCoy.  This is a good middle school-level fantasy yarn about imaginary friends, real friends, bacon, a pirate (the title character), and the role of imagination in the lives of children.  I am not a reader of YA fiction by choice, but being married to a children's librarian I am exposed to a lot of it.  This one is pretty good.  Of course, I am quite partial to pirates and who doesn't love bacon?  Anyway, I would recommend this book.

I think this book came to my wife's attention via Wowbrary.  If you haven't tried this service, it is free and sends you a weekly round-up via email of all the new things the library has acquired the previous week.  There are links directly to the library's catalog so that you can place holds on the new items right away.  If you want to sign up and try it out, just click the link above and enter 67501 in the zip code box.