Harvey-
Are you sure that the correct analogy is the "rental attitude of
today's consumers". If there is any trend in U.S. publishing today it
is towards authors and, more particularly, publishers retaining rights
to their work, especially after passage of the 75 year copyright
legislation. I'm sure that it is not an accident that this is just
about the average lifespan of a human being. Many consumers think that
they have "bought" a recording, software, an e-book, etc. only to find
that they have only licensed it, with a lot of the rights traditionally
held by the print purchaser (right to copy for one's own use, right to
lend or sell, etc.), now subject to restriction and possibly additional
charges. As owner of a collection of DVDs, you may possess them at the
moment but your use is restricted to personal viewing only. You can't
rent a theatre and show the contents like you could do with films in the
old days. Or post portions to YouTube, for that matter. Plus, who
knows how long that DVD will last before it self-destructs.
Charley
Hahn, Harvey wrote:
> Eric Lease Morgan wrote:
> |Despite some of the following comments, I still believe we need to
> |think harder about collections when it comes to this "'next
> |generation' library thing":
> |
> | * Why "collect"? Don't you mean "provide access to" or
> | "provide records that link to"? --Dan Lester
> |
> | * To me the question is not "what's in it?" but "what does it
> | connect to?" and "what are it's services?" --Karen Coyle
>
> I think there's always a "collection" involved. The real question, I
> think, is who owns it? Does the local library own all or some of it, or
> do one or more remote sites own part or all of it (e.g., the fully
> digital library)? The "services" attitude is, I think, directly
> influenced by the "rental" attitude of today's consumers. For example,
> I *own* my personal DVD collection; many/most other people *rent* their
> DVDs. Either way, you pay, and there is the ability to view the DVDs.
> However, down the road, as "older" and less-used content is removed from
> the market, the renters can no longer view some DVDs that they used to
> because they are no longer available; on the other hand, since I
> personally own them, I *can* still view them. Thus, the renters "pay"
> again in that access is no longer available to particular content. This
> is the part related to collections and services that I have not yet
> heard here: there is increasing risk related to access as we become more
> and more dependent on online digital content. Conservation and
> preservation of digital content for the future becomes virtually
> impossible because the content is owned and controlled by others (mostly
> with commercial interests) and is governed by the DMCA. If content is
> withdrawn or available only at exhorbitant costs, where do libraries
> stand and what have we gained with an emphasis on electronic access,
> which is tenuous at best because it is out of our control. Anyway, just
> some more food for thought...
>
> Harvey
>
> --
> ===========================================
> Harvey E. Hahn, Manager, Technical Services Department
> Arlington Heights (Illinois) Memorial Library
> 847/506-2644 - FX: 847/506-2650 - Email: hhahn(at)ahml(dot)info
> OML & Scripts web pages: http://www.ahml.info/oml/
> Personal web pages: http://users.anet.com/~packrat
>
--
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Charley Pennell mailto:cpennell_at_unity.ncsu.edu
Principal Cataloger for Metadata voice: (919)515-2743
Metadata and Cataloging Department fax: (919)515-7292
NCSU Libraries, Box 7111
North Carolina State University
Raleigh, NC 27695-7111
Adjunct Librarian, Memorial University of Newfoundland
World Wide Web: http://www.ibiblio.org/hillwilliam/chuckhome.html
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Received on Mon Mar 19 2007 - 16:14:02 EDT