In this month's issue of Governing, Dylan Scott trumpets one librarian's quest to reinvent the public library for the e-book era:
It was remarkable in its simplicity: LaRue decided to build a digital warehouse and contracting system, which would allow his libraries to purchase directly from smaller publishers and authors, cutting out the Big Six and OverDrive, which would mean lower prices. ... The [Douglas County] libraries have so far purchased e-books from more than 900 smaller publishers and hundreds of individual authors. They make up 21,000 of the 35,000 titles in his virtual catalog. The rest come from the major publishers, sold through intermediaries at much higher prices. ...
Jamie LaRue
Having lit this fuse, [Colorado's Jamie] LaRue is turning his attention toward what he sees as the next frontier: libraries themselves as publishers. Now that Douglas County has the content management system for its direct-purchasing project, he thinks it would be easy to turn that into a self-publishing portal. The library would be the center of a local authors’ society, connecting self-starters to copy editors, cover artists and e-book distributors, and transforming thousands of Word documents sitting idly on neighborhood desktops into polished, professional products. LaRue hasn’t actually done this yet, but the idea is already attracting adherents. Officials at the Harris County Public Library say they’re interested in eventually starting a similar project.
There’s something circular about it, LaRue says. Adversity that threatened to undermine the existence of libraries entirely could ultimately lead to their reinvention as incubators for writing talent, creating new content for their own collections and reconnecting with their original purpose as stewards of the written word.
