Money
ameliorate the worst abuses of con- tracts,” Jennie says. “We argue that many of the licensing agreements with libraries are exploitative – and that is why we are approaching the ebook and digital ownership and policy space and debate a contracts perspective.” She explains that focussing on con- tracts is a new approach, adding: “Former bills, like the ones in Maryland, could be argued to operate much more in the realm of copyright law. States can’t regulate a federally mandated rule like copyright.”
She goes on to say: “Kyle K. Courtney,
Library Futures co-founder, had previ- ous experience of the bill. The legislation he and Policy Fellow Juliya Ziskina have worked on was released in the summer (
https://bit.ly/3J6Smzm) and since then many states have been working to introduce these bills.”
News deserts
Alongside its legal expertise, Library Futures is also developing other areas of advocacy. “When we began, we were clear we needed a new kind of advocacy organ- isation that was really going to push the limit and the window on what library advocacy should look like. Libraries face unprecedented challenges – there are unionisation struggles, issues of book banning and labour and surveillance, and for us, we seek to always be at the front of the issue curve and produce the most cutting-edge research and advocacy.” One of the more experimental projects coming from Library Futures explores the relationship between local libraries and local newspapers (
https://bit.ly/3J28tyc)
30 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
in Albany, NY, the two main sources of information in communities. Declining trust and funding in local news has led to “news deserts,” which – according to a paper from the Hussman School of Jour- nalism – lack “the sort of credible and comprehensive news and information that feeds democracy at the grassroots level.” In Albany, while there remains a com- prehensive local paper, the number of local news sources has declined precip- itously in the last 20 years. The project used a methodology called public-pow- ered journalism.
Jennie said: “The local news work is our primary special project. We wanted to create extremely tangible and practical projects with the news because it is such a huge issue for libraries. We found the con- nections we supported between librarians and local reporters over the course of the seven months were invaluable.”
Universal problems
Jennie believes the primary and most immediate threat to libraries comes from corporate players and profit-seeking in information spaces, saying: “These licences take the power out of the hands of the indi- vidual libraries and individual communities and give it to a private company. We have democratic checks and balances that are overridden by corporations. “If a company’s ultimate goal is to make
profit and not provide information resources to communities it overrides a lot of the dem- ocratic systems that are in place. It makes it much harder for individual librarians and institutions that uphold quality information access for communities to do their jobs.”
The extent to which these corporations take taxpayer money is another threat to citizens whatever their politics: “It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle you come from, everyone wants to protect libraries, everyone wants to use taxpayer money effectively. And one of the arguments regarding ebook licensing that I think is really salient, besides access, is that it is just a poor use of taxpayer money.” She gives an example from a New Yorker magazine article (
https://bit.ly/3yqnq8k) about how much more the New York Public Library spent on digital copies of Barack Obama’s book than on physical copies. She says: “A library might be paying $54 for a single licence, for a one at a time lend, for a physical book that might have cost them $15.” And the questions go much deeper. “I freelanced as a digital reference librar- ian for the state of North Carolina for much of graduate school. I would talk to students all the time, and many of the resources they needed weren’t there, they just weren’t available to them because their libraries couldn’t afford them. The question is not whether or not a company should be making money on research, but rather, who has access? Is the profit margin reasonable? Was that research publicly funded? All publicly funded research should be publicly accessible, there shouldn’t be any nuance in that.”
UK and Europe In the UK and Europe, she points to #ebooksos and KR21 (see page 51) as partners. “Johanna Anderson’s work in particular shows the power of individuals to just say ‘enough is enough, this is ridic- ulous’ and she eloquently demonstrates how that work needs to be translated into meaningful public policy. I think KR21 is really starting to ask that question within a pretty complicated landscape across Europe. I can’t imagine doing this work across different member states with different languages. The message remains clear, and the goals remain clear, but the terrain is incredibly disparate.” The legislative ebook campaign by US library advocacy groups – in which Library Futures plays a vital role – pro- vides encouragement for library services elsewhere struggling with the obstacles devised by the publishing industry. She said: “Every institution needs to an- alyse its own risk. The threat of litigation, as publishers have shown over and over again, is definitely real. However, at the same time, the question is whether lending out a digital object one at a time to your patrons is a big risk– each institution has to decide for themselves. At the same time, libraries must ask themselves if restricted digital collections put them on the right side of history? Who are you empowering – patrons or corporations?” IP
March 2023
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