January 12, 2026

“You’re Not Special” Revisited

Almost five years ago to the day, I wrote a piece titled “You’re Not Special”. In it, I championed the idea of routinizing common library workflows so that staff could be reallocated to services that directly impact end-users. At ALA Annual in Anaheim, which just ended, I had occasion to refer to that piece again. […]

The Ebook Elephant in the Room | ALA Annual 2012

For ebooks, “true collection development is going to have to wait…until we have more access, if not all access to everything that’s being published,” Anne Silvers Lee, chief of the materials management division of the Free Library of Philadelphia, said during a Saturday panel discussion at the American Library Association’s annual conference in Anaheim this weekend.

Google Debuts New Service for Libraries at ALA Conference | ALA Annual 2012

The Internet giant takes a small table and pitches a free map service.

ALA Contemplating a Seal of Approval for Ebook Business Models | ALA Annual 2012

The American Library Association’s Digital Content & Libraries Working Group has had a busy year, and it is now halfway through its two-year mission to help guide ALA in its response to all the challenges and difficulties that ebooks are presenting to the librarian community, with a particular focus on public librarians and the Big […]

Bibliotheca Says Solution to Library Ebook Frustrations Has to Be National | ALA Annual 2012

Although many details have yet to be worked out, Bibliotheca’s fledgling ebook division has attracted some strong library talent and is aspiring to a national ebook solution for libraries.

Pew: Patrons Still Don’t Know Libraries Have Ebooks | ALA Annual 2012

Of Americans aged 16 and over, only 2 percent have borrowed an ebook from a library in the past year, The Pew Internet Project announced today at the American Library Association conference in Anaheim, CA. Although the numbers are higher for ebook readers, they’re still small: only 12 percent have borrowed an ebook from the […]

Conference Under Way, ALA President Praises New Penguin Ebook Pilot With NYC Libraries | ALA Annual 2012

As the ALA annual conference got under way, ALA President Molly Raphael welcomed the news that Penguin was putting its toe back in the library ebook lending waters

Penguin, 3M Test Ebook Pilot at NYPL, BPL

Big Six publisher Penguin Group, the New York Public Library (NYPL), the Brooklyn Public Library (BPL), and 3M Library Systems today announced a pilot project to make Penguin ebooks available to patrons of The New York and Brooklyn public libraries six months after initial publication. The program will begin in August and, if successful, could roll out across the country. The move comes four months after Penguin pulled out of its contract with OverDrive.

Ingram to Offer MyiLibrary Ebook Platform to Public Libraries in September | ALA Annual 2012

Ingram Content Group, one of the dominant players in the academic ebook market with its MyiLibrary platform, has been gearing up for several months to introduce MyiLibrary to the public library market. The launch date is scheduled for September, but Ingram will be demonstrating how it is tailoring the platform to serve the public library channel at the American Library Association annual conference this week in Anaheim (booth #1446).