We librarians are in a war for survival but we keep getting caught up in battles. The battle with Overdrive, the battle with Harper Collins, Penguin, other publishers, the battle with database providers, the battle with Apple, Facebook, and everybody else trying to limit choices/privacy, etc. and we are losing them and losing them badly. It is time to remember the War.
I don’t know about you, but I am fighting the War to make the Library vital to my community and make the community I serve the best in the world.
I don’t care about eBooks, I am not sure I even care about books anymore except that my community uses them for the moment. But the writing is on the wall. If your library is spending all its energy on righteous indignation about corporations not playing fair, and fighting the same battle over and over again perhaps it is time to step back and remember the War. It is not about books, it is about the community.
I appreciate and admire the people (where do you get the energy?) and organizations fighting the battles, but I am sick of all the kvetching and hopeless hand wringing. Play the long game, go out there and do something awesome, screw ebooks, screw books.
TTW Contributor: Mick Jacobsen