I want a professional organization that reacts reasonably but timely to controversial issues. The American Library Association has been eerily quite on the issue of eBooks and Harper Collins.

The only statement that has been issued comes from the ALA President Roberta Stevens. On her facebook pages she wrote:

“Message to the ALA Executive Board, Council, Division and Round Table Leadership, Equitable Access to Electronic Content Task Force and OITP’s E-Book Subcommittee:

“Recent developments in the e-book marketplace have underscored the importance of a model for e-book purchasing and lending that reflects the interests of all of the stakeholders: authors, publishers, booksellers, libraries and, ultimately, the public.

“At the recent Midwinter Meeting, my president’s report identified the names of the members of the Equitable Access to Electronic Content task force, which was created in response to a Council resolution. The task force, chaired by Linda Crowe and Michael Porter, will be meeting in Washington next week for a working retreat that is being financially supported by ALA. Among other groups, they will get assistance from OITP’s E-Book subcommittee.

“I do not take your concerns about changes in the e-book pricing approach lightly. However, due to the far-reaching and long-term effects, the task force deserves time to gather information and examine the complex issues involved in equitable access to electronic content, including e-books. We will receive their report at the Annual Conference and I look forward to our using it, as an association, to formulate actions that will ensure we have 21st century libraries to meet the needs of our users.

“Meanwhile, please feel free to continue communicating your viewpoints to publishers and e-book distributors.

“Thank you for speaking up.

“Roberta Stevens
“ALA President”

While I appreciate the time and effort the task force has and will put into this issue, Librarians around the country (and the world) don’t want to wait for a committee report to tell us what we all know: this move by HarperCollins will be costly to Librarians and detrimental to the circulation of eBooks. It could also have far reaching effects on the rest of our circulation policies. It will block the free flow of information by requiring Libraries to expend more money on the eBook than on a print copy, thereby stifling what Libraries can do.

Matthew Hamilton wrote recently about a statement “Libraryland” could issue. His words ring true: we all know what needs to be said. So I ask, why is it not being said by our professional organization?

Because as much as the ALA is a professional organization, it is a political one. It does not want to offend the publishers to whom it depends on funding for conferences, events, etc. Its members are not mad enough to demand action, or perhaps they are too complacent (or busy feeding their cats or knitting, or both).

I want ALA to take a stand. I want ALA to see the dangerous road HarperCollins is on and to say something. I don’t want to wait 3 months til ALA Annual for a Committee report because by then Libraries will have been doing exactly what HarperCollins wants them to do: limit eBook checkouts. And if we allow them to do it for even 3 months, what’s the point of taking a stand. I fear it will be too little, too late.

Other good posts on this subject: 
• Andy Woodworth at Agnostic, Maybe:  ”Now what? We do this.”
• Toby Greenwalt, at the analogdivide:  ”Okay, Now what?”
• Barbara Fister at Library Journal: “Boycotts, Censorship, and Taking Action” “
• Sarah Houghton-Jan at Librarian in Black, “More on eBooks and Libraries.”

I am proud to be a member of ALA.  But right now, I am ashamed at the “wait and see” approach they are taking.  ALA members need to demand the ALA President and Council take a stand, quickly and forcefully about the restrictions HarperCollins has now decided to implement before we go along with it for 3 months and acquiesce.

While on a crowded boat in Bangkok this past week, I spotted a woman clutching a book to her chest. She was a fellow traveler like me, and had a small Lonely Planet Bangkok Encounter guide. I know that was the book from what I could see from the obscured title. It was not the title that caught my eye, but the barcode obscuring it.

As she walked past I tried to read the name of the city but couldn’t but did manage to make out the words “public library” to verify it was indeed a library book. Yet another example of the roles Libraries play in peoples lives.

7:45 AM–Arrive at work and have my breakfast; Get ready for my day.

8:10-9:00 AM–Finished cataloging some non-fiction books that were on my desk while proctoring a calculus test for a student.

9:00 AM–Talked to a teacher about a book that a student damaged and needed to pay for.

9:10-10:00 AM–Worked on cleaning off my desk and organizing things into my new file cabinet.

10:00 AM–A parent volunteer arrives and I task her (and her friend) to shelve books; The end up shifting some of the Picture Books because I am running out of room.

10:30 AM–Have discipline issues in the Library with a study hall student.

11:00 -11:40 AM–Had the First Grade class to the Library; Read “The Big Wide-Mouthed Frog.”

12:10-1:10 PM-Lunch

1:10-1:50 PM–Had Grade 3 for weekly Library time; Read to them “Dial-A-Croc”.

2:00-2:40 PM–Grade 4 weekly Library visit; Read to them from “Give Peas a Chance” a collection of short stories from Morris Gleitzman.

3:00-4:00 PM–The Elementary students awaiting pickup wait in the library.

Last night I decided to make a facebook page for my school Library, partly because I was bored and partly because I thought “why not.” So as my first status update for the page, I posted something about our Author visit and tagged the author in it.

Imagine my surprise when I logged in this morning and saw this:

It’s amazing to see what can happen with social media!

So while I was on it, I added a “Like this” code to our Follett Destiny catalog. We’ll see how many kids like the Library Facebook page from that.

This is one of the reasons I love being a Librarian at an International School:

A box of books I ordered from Australia is wending its way to Taiwan, via Singapore, China and the Philippines.

I ordered books from Australia because in less than a month famed children’s author Morris Gleitzman will be visiting our school. He will be in Taiwan for the Taipei International Book Expo. As part of his visit, the Australia Commerce and Industry Office (the de facto Embassy here in Taiwan) has arranged for him to visit our school, speak to the kids and sign his books.

We are very excited and honored to have such an esteemed author take time out of his busy schedule to visit our school. We are also very appreciative of the Australia Commerce and Industry Office for making it possible.

“Where are your books about Emily Elizabeth”
Do you mean the Clifford books?
Yeah! That’s it.

“I want a book my friend had. It had a picture of a rat on it.”
Do you mean this book? [as I hold up a copy of Geronimo Silton].
Wow. How did you know that?

I love my job.

Librarians are concerned with copyright because we seek to protect not only the rights of others, but our right to freely allow others to borrow materials. There has been much discussion about eBooks and Digital Rights Management (DRM) but in discussing these new copyright issues, we often forget that there are still an issues with analog media and copyright.

International School Librarian face a unique challenge because many of us are in countries where copyright is not understood, or if understood is simply winked at.

Among some of the scenarios faced:

—A Principal might argue its “cheaper” to buy one workbook and copy it section, by section as the students need it rather than pay the extra expense (mostly shipping) to have a workbook for each student. [When in fact when you factor in the cost of toner and maintenance on the photocopy machine it could be more expensive to follow this path].
—A drama teacher might not want to navigate the hoops of acquiring international performance rights for a play, and puts it on with photocopied scripts and without a license.
—A computer teacher wants to upgrade to the new version of an operating system, but its prohibitively expensive, so bootlegged copies are purchased.
—A English teacher wants to show a film in class, but it is not available in the country.  Shipping would take too long, so it is downloaded from the internet to be shown in class.

While these scenarios are not unique to International Schools, I think some of the factors that lead to it are unique.

Budgets come into play quite a bit when dealing with the “why” of copyright violations.  Another factor is in fact ignorance.  Many people don’t understand the complexities of copyright and how “fair use” comes into play.  As Librarians we are positioned and have the training to explain copyright and how to play by the rules (as it were).  Often it is hard to understand why copyright needs to be followed.  Many of the major universities in Asian countries have students who purchase books from bookstores off campus.  Yet they are photocopied and cheaply bound in cardstock for the students to use.  While it is not policy to encourage this practice, many of my friends who have studied in Asia report they are told by the Professor on the first day where to get the books from off campus because they are cheaper.  This practice not only violated copyright but is an affront to their colleagues in other institutions who thereby do not make money from the practice of bootleg textbooks.

We can be the voice to explain the how and why of copyright to the faculty, staff and students.  We can explain its importance and what we can do to respect it.  When teaching students about citations and searching, you can also talk about copyright and how plagiarism is stealing, and so is violating copyright.  You can remind your teachers about public-domain resources they can use instead of illegal avenues.  You can explain fair use and provide helpful links to checklists and simple explanations.  There are a myriad of ways we can help our client base understand and respect copyright.  We have to ensure that we ourselves are following copyright laws so we can speak from a position of authority and clarity when we need to.

Perhaps the biggest reason we must be vigilant about copyright in a school setting is this:  We cannot expect our students to fully understand academic honesty and respect for intellectual property when they are being taught from materials that were obtained in violation of copyright; To do so is hypocritical.

When I started my job 4 months ago the Library had 5,917 titles (7,250 total volumes). Today, it has 6,554 titles (8,156 copies).

So in 4 months I have added 637 new titles (906 copies). I have also re-cataloged 237 items that were done incorrectly. These numbers will continue to grow.

Since we upgraded to Follett Destiny 9.8 (from 6.5), on September 17, we have checked out 884 items. Prior to that we have checked out over 250, so in the last 4 months we have checked out over 1,000 items.

I had hoped to have added more items by now, but the work is slow, especially with the Scholastic Books and having to re-catalog items that were done incorrectly. Once I get these picture books done, I expect the rest to go quicker.

My friend and fellow Guybrarian (and stellar dude) Justin Hoenke was featured in this months Library Journal. In his article he talks about moving when he was looking for a job.   Andy Woodworth (also a fellow guybrarian and stellar dude) writes on his blog about lack of jobs, employment and salaries.

This last week as I met other Librarians at the Pennsylvania Library Association Annual Conference  (where I was a panelist on blogging) many people asked me how I got my job in Taiwan and if I liked it (and were further shocked that I was at PaLA all the way from Taiwan, but I digress.).  I got my job by pure luck.  While whining (really, I was) a relative who works at an International School in Asia suggested I look at that avenue.  Since I had lived in Taiwan before and wanted to go back, I started checking out the school websites there.  I saw the job, applied and here I am.

I looked outside the box and was willing to relocate.  That isn’t to say everyone should move halfway across the world.  Not everyone can or should.  But I hadn’t considered school Librarianship (I am not a certified teacher) but with International Schools you don’t necessarily have to be one.  It took me over 100 applications where only 2 of them decided to interview me and then not hire me to get this one.

I don’t have any pearls of wisdom.  I have friends who are still unemployed months after graduating and a few who after a year of looking for full-time employment took jobs not in Libraryland.  Right now, its just the nature of the beast but that doesn’t mean you have to give up looking for the job that’s right for you or for your dream job.  But go in with both eyes open and realize that it isn’t all rainbows and lollipops right now in Libraryland.

I was planning on blogging from PaLA2010 but my plans have changed.  After I registered at the Lancaster County Convention Center and picked up my name badge, I tried to access the Wifi.  Turns out the WiFi is only free if you are a registered guest at the hotel.  Everyone else has to pay.  Even if you are a paying registered event attendee.

When I first found out about this I was quite annoyed.  I realize PaLA has a “cyber suite”  that is wired with computers and internet access for us to use, but does that mean I have to go there everytime I want to sent a tweet?

I thought about it further and realized that having 2 levels of WiFi access was unfair to those of us who live within driving distance of the convention.  Or further, those whose Libraries couldn’t afford to put us up in a Hotel for 3 nights.  Equity of access and bridging the digital divide are touchstones of Librarianship yet here at our own conference we have those same issues.

Last year at PaLa2009 in Harrisburg the WiFi was free.  I’ve been to PLA, SLA and ALA and the WiFi was free.  Sure, you had to have an access code, but it was made readily available for attendees.  So why not at the Lancaster County Convention Center?  I am not sure.  But when you have a conference of Librarians (who are supossed to be “wired” and “plugged in”) it boggles the mind that wireless access wouldn’t be free.

The convention centers website touts it as “the country’s newest convention center.”  It might be, but the idea that wireless is something you have to pay for is certainly an old one.

I flew in from Taiwan to be part of a panel presentation in blogging tomorrow morning.  I can’t blog and I can’t tweet about the conference.  The irony of the situation is not lost on me.