ALA Conference Report: "Ebooks: New Strategy Required, Now"
Heather McCormack from Library Journal reports and comments on the “The Future Is Now!: Ebooks and Their Increasing Impact on Library Services,” session that took place at ALA 2011 on Saturday.
Four panelists spoke in succession: Bob Bocher, Library Technology Consultant with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Division for Libraries, Technology and Community Learning; Jamie LaRue, director of Douglas County (CO) Libraries; Chris Harris, coordinator of School Library Systems, Genesee Valley BOCES; Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive; and Peter Brantley, director of the Bookserver Project at the Internet Archive.
Their messages represent what I’ve come to view as archetypes in the debate; in other words, we’ve heard it all before in other forums, but the reiterations are important because—as the standing-room and sitting-on-the-floor-under-the-projection-screen turnout indicated—librarians are still hungry for information on how to launch and build the best ebook collections possible.
Filed under: Associations and Organizations, Libraries, Publishing, Reports, School Libraries
About Gary Price
Gary Price (gprice@gmail.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. He earned his MLIS degree from Wayne State University in Detroit. Price has won several awards including the SLA Innovations in Technology Award and Alumnus of the Year from the Wayne St. University Library and Information Science Program. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com.