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That’s the title of a thought-provoking article by school librarian Christopher Harris in American Libraries.  I never would have thought about this nightmare. Here’s a snippet:

Late last week, I received an email from OverDrive, sent as part of itsISTE promotions, that was quite different from the messaging we in the library world receives. Instead of speaking as a library partner—a company dedicated to helping provide digital books through libraries—OverDrive seems to be presenting itself to the school technology world as a libraryreplacement. “Lend your students eBooks from a publisher-supported digital library powered by OverDrive,” the ad states. Never mind, this seems to suggest, lending from a school library that includes ebooks; tap into an OverDrive library replacement that your school can buy after laying off the school librarian.

This is, I am afraid, one of the downsides of going digital. Traditional library companies that marketed heavily to libraries because we were the physical gatekeepers to knowledge are now able to bypass the library and sell directly to school administrators. Will we see future OverDrive advertising for a national conference of mayors and town supervisors talk about creating a digital lending library through OverDrive as a replacement for a recently closed public library?

2 COMMENTS

  1. Moving from pBooks to eBooks clearly foreshadows the end of physical gatekeeping and all of the policies, procedures and infrastructure that supports it. It will also change many relationships. What will library patrons need, if anything, in this brave new world? That’s what librarians should be thinking very hard about. What new relationships will emerge from this? Will we rely on OverDrive and other commercial entities or is there still a role for taxpayer-supported endeavors such as a National Digital Library (NDL)? Will local libraries become an outlet for OverDrive, the NDL, something else or just fade away?

  2. I live in a small rural community. Last year we were fortunate to have had an anonymous donor fund half of the Overdrive subscription fee, the other half being handled by state funding and library budget. This year, a library tax increase issue failed, and library funding is being cut at the county level. Overdrive will be terminated, not only because of inadequate funding but due to Overdrive subscription fee increases, cut back in state support, and the decrease in Overdrive access to popular books from subscription limits on those titles. Overdrive is a bitter memory for many of us.

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