Maryland Libraries Strike Back and Other Macmillan news
/An article appeared in today’s Baltimore Sun setting out the Maryland Library Association and many local systems’ concerns about the upcoming changes in Macmillan’s licensing terms. Those concerns have also been stated elsewhere, but it is gratifying to see yet more heavily used and prestigious libraries bring this matter to public attention. Thanks, Maryland Library Association and Maryland libraries!
Alan Inouye continues to monitor developments and has shared several recent updates:
There has been a lot of activity this week on the public campaign front. There was an amazing segment on CBS in NYC yesterday; check it out:
We also launched our campaign at the Frankfurt Book Fair. We began on Monday with an email blast that Publishers Weekly sent to all of its subscribers. Within an hour, we heard from Macmillan's president that their position is unchanged and they are not inclined to adopt the joint committee that we proposed but are eager to meet and further discuss. He promised to get back to Sari and me to talk about possibilities in New York or elsewhere.
The Frankfurt campaign continued, with a daily full-page ad in the show daily; here is day 3:
https://twitter.com/AlanSInouye/status/1185121973778681856
We also conducted a social media campaign targeted to the Fair and specifically to the Fair site (i.e., geographic targeting).
There were many articles and op-eds this week--so many that I haven't yet been able to read all of them. Some notable things close to home include news about King County Library System published in Publishers Weekly; an article by Sari Feldman published by IFLA; and article in Library Journal with liberal contributions from me:
https://twitter.com/AlanSInouye/status/1184637197833658368
https://twitter.com/AlanSInouye/status/1184234339862798337
Hopefully I'll sort through the various articles, a couple of other TV segments, op-eds, and other items by the end of the weekend. I've posted a number of them on my Twitter account (@AlanSInouye).
There are some hints of related action in Washington D.C. Might some in Congress be considering national legislative action in aid of libraries? Let’s hope so! Details may be available within a few weeks. We’ll post when we know more.