Press Release: New American Libraries Supplement Examines Major Trends in Digital Content

Washington, D.C.-Leading library visionaries and experts discuss trends in digital content technology and the current state of library ebook lending in "Digital Discoveries," a new digital supplement from American Libraries magazine.

"There is some reason for optimism," said Alan S. Inouye, guest editor of the digital supplement and director of the American Library Association's (ALA) Office for Information Technology Policy (OITP). "However, there remain many formidable challenges and exciting opportunities for libraries within the digital content realm in the coming years."

Developed by ALA's Digital Content Working Group (DCWG), the digital supplement examines the ways that public and school libraries are defining their roles in the evolving digital publishing environment in a variety of new and interactive ways. The digital supplement also details ALA's progress in advocating for equitable access to ebooks produced by the world's largest book publishers.

"Each change in the publishing ecosystem has helped us gain a better understanding of what might be coming," said Molly Raphael, former ALA president, in an article that provides an overview of the existing ebook lending landscape. "Much work remains to be done, but we can say that ALA has made a difference in helping libraries and librarians find solutions for working in the digital world ecosystem."

"We are on the cusp of beginning to see the full impact of the internet on the book business, and it will sweep away much of what we understand today about publishing," said Peter Brantley, director of Scholarly Communication for Hypothes.is. In "Beating the Odds," Brantley discusses how libraries can insert themselves into the budding self-publishing industry by connecting authors to readers and assisting the publishing process by assembling tools and services for writers and editors, for instance.

In "School Library Ebook Business Models," library ebook lending experts Christopher Harris, Ric Hasenyager, and Carrie Russell discuss optimal ebook licensing models for school libraries. According to the authors, school libraries-unlike public libraries-have the option to access content from major publishing companies via online retailer platform models, such as Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble.