Executive Board Supports Intensified Advocacy on Behalf of Member Library Buyers

That would be ALA's Executive Board after one of its board meetings, not, well, you know. At issue, persuading the general trade industry to permit public libraries to loan eBooks. See ALA President Molly Raphael's report at ALA Board Backs Intensified Ebook Advocacy (April 27, 2012).

In itself, a library association's executive board statement doesn't mean much, not if you restrict the horizon of your experience to AALL. In the case of ALA, this association already has a track record of advocating for its institutional members with respect to eBooks. It has produced some results and follow-up promises by both ALA and some publishers, some ALA criticism of recent eBook publisher actions and ALA blog communications available for all to read in a fairly timely manner. Hence the use of the word "intensified" in the title of Raphael's blog post does not have a hollow ring to it. As for actions since the April 27, 2012 post about that association's executive board pledge to intensify its advocacy efforts on behalf of its institutional members, see Raphael's follow-up post dated May 18, 2012, Ebooks: Promising New Conversations.

Has ALA taken a "don't like what we are doing publishing industry, sue us" position? Or does ALA have better legal advice than what AALL members saw last year? Can ALA execute this advocacy campaign only because its member libraries are open to the public? Well, there are plenty of law libraries that are required to be open to the public including many public academy law libraries as well as many, if not most, state and county government funded law libraries. [JH]