The conservative mindset could not succeed in burning and destroying the libraries and repositories of knowledge for thousands of years… until today.
And Rupert Murdoch is the man behind the destruction of our reading materials at our libraries. The Murdoch empire under the guise of its HarperCollins Publishing acquisition has devised a lending system to libraries for e-books. Just like a regular book… the e-book is lent out to a public reader (digitally downloaded) and then returned to await the next borrower. Only with Murdoch’s system, the 27th time that this digital e-book is checked out – it self-destructs and the library must buy another copy of that e-book to replace it.
Under the policy of HarperCollins Publishing House (a Rupert Murdoch NewsCorp acquisition) that started on March 7, 2011…
… libraries can "lease" (for a fee) new HarperCollins e-books and loan them no more than 26 times. At that point, the book disappears — digitally — unless the library pays to lease another copy for the next 26 readers. (Libraries lend e-books one at a time, just like print, unless multiple copies are bought.)
Our libraries are already staggering under the drastic cuts from conservative lawmakers. This policy only adds insult to injury by forcing our libraries to repurchase the same books… over and over… because the publisher has programmed the new book format to self-destruct on a product that has no wear and tear.
"It's never pretty when a publisher decides they have to destroy books in order to save their business model," librarian Barbara Fister of Gustavus Adolphus College, wrote in a blog for Library Journal.
Notably, the aging of the baby-boomer generation is a big driver for the flourishing e-book market. Aging eyes and the ease of use with the e-readers, i-Pads, smartphones or laptops have accelerated reading and the use of e-books.
The e-book and e-reader markets are growing rapidly. The Yankee Group estimates 310 million e-book sales worth $2.7 billion by 2013. In 2010, e-book sales totaled approximately $170 million, according to an article by eBookNewser.
--snip--
For librarians, the heart of the matter isn't money but the desire to make books - in whatever format - available to those who want to read. Lednicer learned from personal experience that the ability to carry a slim e-reader around makes it easier to read more.
Therefore, library consortia have decided to boycott HarperCollins and any other publisher who follow this suppression of our libraries and the love of reading.
Now it’s on to the TOP COMMENTS OF THE DAY submitted from Kossack readers. THANK YOU very much to everyone who took the time to send in these most excellent comments to share with the DailyKos community.
From Lord Mike:
A brilliant comment was made by Xenocrypt about Charlie Crist's new career as an ambulance chasing lawyer at the DK Elections Daily Digest by David Nir.
From Ana Thema:
stormicats gives a brief history of how obesity is a class issue in the diary The Class Politics of Shaming Fat Kids by futurebird. I think she should now write a diary on the subject, because this comment covers so much ground.
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