I’ve read some things that convince me the Internet Archive aren’t immune to Silicon Valley douchebaggery, and in the Open Library case they’ve engaged in sketchy behavior that’s likely weakened their case. I still hope they win, because they seem to represent the only major challenge to a publisher controlled model for how to adapt library lending into e-books - and that model is quite frankly a huge threat to libraries as we know and love them.
Yes, the publishers would very much like to reduce libraries to tax funded franchises of Amazon and Scribd, which is basically what Overdrive is. So yes, whatever you think of IA, this is a mortal threat to public libraries, along with the fascists.
@misc Academic libraries too. A lot of directors are inclined to treat print as a legacy format. It isn't when 80% of requests I get are for print. It also isn't when the electronic version is so locked down people can't use it the way they want. And when the electronic version is not available for sale to libraries at all.
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