eLending and the Digital Library Seminar: Jamie LaRue From Gatekeeper to Gardener, Creative Destruction in the Library
Jamie LaRue (http://jaslarue.blogspot.com.au/ ) is the director of the Douglas County Libraries, headquartered in Castle Rock, CO. He is the author of The New Inquisition: Understanding and Managing Intellectual Freedom Challenges, and wrote a weekly newspaper column for over 25 years. He was the Colorado Librarian of the Year in 1998, the Castle Rock Chamber of Commerce's 2003 Business Person of the Year, and in 2007 won the Julie J. Boucher (boo-SHAY) Award for Intellectual Freedom. In recent years Jamie has pioneered the development of a library initiated eContent management platform, forging new partnerships with Independent publishers and self published authors and exploring opportunities for libraries as community publishers and facilitators of local creative talent.
Jamie provided a keynote presentation: From Gatekeeper to Gardener: Creative Destruction and the Library.
Presentation Synopsis:
The Digital Publishing Revolution is here at last. And at first, It wasn't going well: libraries were spending more and getting less. But once the Douglas County Libraries (in Castle Rock, Colorado) set up its own eContent platform, librarians realized that the game had changed. The old system of content distribution was broken. The new one offered libraries a once-in-a-generation opportunity. Are we bold enough to claim it?
Jamie LaRue's presentation commences at 8 minutes 55 seconds.
Postscript:
Three years have past since Jamie's keynote presentation at the NSW.net eLending and the Digital Library Seminar. A lot has happened (and not happened) in the intervening years with regards to eBooks and eLending in public libraries.
This is Jamie's 2016 addendum to his presentation.
Except for a major math dyslexia (we bought 10,000 books for $4 apiece or $40,000, not 40,000 books for $10,000), I think it holds up pretty well, with three exceptions.
1. Today, it's more like 20% of the REPORTED bestsellers are self-published. For Amazon, self-published book now significantly outsell the Big Five.
2. Lots of big authors have jumped ship, or are "blending" self-published ebooks and mainstream print (once they've already hit it big).
3. I was way wrong about the rate of library adoption. School and public librarians are NOT investing in buying ebooks, in part because the market is so stacked against them. My prediction that our collections would be half digital in five years was just flat out mistaken. I don't think the actual percentage of collections has changed more than a percentage point or two for PUBLIC libraries - although new purchases are overwhelmingly digital for most academic libraries.
But I continue to believe that this is an urgent, once in a generation opportunity, and that those who dare to try something will earn themselves a seat at the table.
We need librarians willing to take risks, to invest in alternatives. Yet again, I am impressed by our Australian colleagues. Welcome to a small, but powerful, and now international movement. I'm so glad to see you.