ALA Leads the Way in Advocating for Fair eBook Lending Practices: Will AALL ever emulate this campaign?

“The library community cannot sit by while publishers openly refuse to sell libraries the e-books that they need to serve their patrons,” said ALA President Maureen Sullivan, who recently led several library meetings with publishers. “Librarians and our allies must speak out more forcefully in communities across the country. Everyone needs to know that libraries offer e-books and 21st century library services, but we are unable to offer all the e-reading choices our patrons demand and deserve.”

Towards that objective ALA has released an E-book Media & Communications Toolkit. For more information, see  Ron Jankowski's Nov. 27, 2012 ALA Membership Blog post titled ALA Launches E-book Media & Communications Toolkit to Assist Libraries.

Yes, yes, I know the vast majority of law librarians do not belong to ALA. But ALA is the only library association that has been campaigning against the current eBook status quo because many general trade publishers deny libraries access to their eBooks for their patrons use. These are issues that are only starting to be addressed in law libraries. We, law librarians and AALL, can learn from our colleagues in public libraries and from what ALA is doing to advocate for their user populations. ALA's consumer advocacy media campaign toolkit can be easily adapted to law library circumstances. [JH]