The National E-book Summit

RF Friends from ALA's ASCLA Group have shared some information about the upcoming National E-book Summit, which will be this Friday, right before ALA Annual in New Orleans.

RF representatives have been invited and will report back on the summit.

"As discussed at previous ASCLA consortial ebook interest group meetings, an ALA national ebook summit has been planned.

For planning and financial purposes, we had to keep the summit to a small number and were unable to invite everyone to this event.  

The goals of the ALA national ebook summit is as follows: 

•    Facilitate conversation and critical thinking about improving access to eBooks and to strengthening our approach to analysis and evaluation around eBooks;

•    Build connections and understanding across all the different players in the eBook field; and to

•    Document the ideas and paths forward into a national agenda that we will share widely and draw in more partners to work on current and new projects and next steps.
 
But never fear, Friday’s summit is only the beginning – it marks a place on the road already travelled by several initiatives, but this effort is the start of an inclusive collaboration that will identify concrete next steps to resolve the digital dilemmas affecting all players; we’re not just pointing at the issues.

Much like many of you, we’re committing to work together, to each put skin in the game, to make the ebook business work better for all partners and all readers.
 
We will restart the ASCLA consortial ebook interest group meetings back up at the ALA midwinter conference in Seattle.

If you are attending ALA, we look forward to seeing you in and around NOLA at the various ebook events being convened by our friends at DPLA and ALA. 

Thanks to all of you for being a BIG part of the momentum that keeps this conversation and collaboration going. 

We couldn’t do it without you!

Yours in library love,

Paula MacKinnon, Califa Library Group
Veronda J. Pitchford, Reaching Across Illinois Library System
Stephen H. Spohn, Jr., Massachusetts Library System