As the American Library Association’s annual conference got under way today in Anaheim, ALA President Molly Raphael praised the decision by Penguin Group USA to re-enter the library ebook lending market on a trial basis with the New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library, and 3M.
On the first day of the conference, Raphael released this statement:
I applaud Penguin’s decision today to re-start e-book sales to libraries so that we may again meet our mutual goals of connecting authors and readers. This has been at the core of ALA’s outreach to Penguin and other major publishers over the past six months, and I am thrilled they are willing to try new business models in collaboration with libraries. This is an important development in our evolving relationship with publishers and intermediaries.
As we move forward together, we must continue to experiment. One key area is to leverage the library’s role as a place of discovery to find new authors and titles. Having immediate access to titles from first-time and niche authors, for instance, presents a win-win-win for publishers, libraries and our library users who buy, as well as borrow.
We welcome new partners in creating and supporting a nation of readers. I hope we’ll be hearing more announcements like this very soon.
The conference, which runs until Tuesday, had an advance registration of 10,310, or 12,213 if exhibitor guest passes are included. This compares to 11,273 (and 12,727) in New Orleans last year.
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