saving born-digital books in libraries: a freakout
the relatively recent rise of "digital publishing" and "self-publishing" and "independent publishing" and "retail publishing" and "library publishing" are prompting libraries' irregular (if not frantic) reconsideration of long-standing practices in the art and science of ebook acquisitions, collection development, cataloging, preservation and general memory-hole avoidance. not to put too fine a point on it, but e-commerce sites have in a relatively few short years built databases of available e-content to rival that of any library. in fact, e-commerce sites have built databases of content to rival that of every library, ever, combined. while remaining calm, libraries are nevertheless facing the new math of (amazon + apple) X google > worldcat + hathitrust. it's freaky out there, is the thing -- especially with respect to ebooks-related services, facilities, policies and prices. libraries now find themselves sort of suddenly stuck in the middle of this "digital publishing revolution" -- a world where ebooks don't really go out of print or out of stock, a world where ebooks are everywhere, immediately accessible, and ridiculously inexpensive, a world where virtual shelves are infinite, a world where there are way more ebooks than people, where literary and scholarly and popular ebooks alike are all collected and even curated in "the cloud," a world where publishers and distributors and booksellers and even authors may cede their publishing power to buyers and to readers, but certainly not to librarians.
so, the question is, still: what are we going to do about all these freaking ebooks?
join us: saving born-digital books in libraries, a freakout
tagline: 2 half-days of peace, love, and (not) freaking out about born-digital ebooks
where: zsr library, wake forest univ, wsnc, usa
when: thursday-friday, april 23-24, 2015