The Annual RF Cheers 'N Jeers and People of the Year

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With the New Year fast approaching, time for the ReadersFirst Working Group’s Cheers ‘N Jeers for 2019.

Cheers!

  • Alan Inouye, the American Library Association (Thanks, Wanda) and the Public Library Association (Thanks, Ramiro) for your leadership in creating eBooksforAll and for advocacy in the industry (thanks, also, Sari), and federal and state governments. Thanks, to, for creating a new Digital Content Working Group, and to Lean Dunn and Kelvin Watson for chairing it.

  • Andrew Albanese of Publishers Weekly, for telling the library story factually and well. We are all better informed because of you.

  • The Canadian Urban Library Council, for advocacy with publishers and providing the template for the resolution that ALA adopted in July, leading to the creation of a new Digital Content Working Group, and while we are about it, the Urban Library Council and COSLA for fine advocacy work for library digital content..

  • Carmi Parker for leading the charge on Macmillan and Blackstone, the State of Washington (thanks, Lisa of KCLS and Cindy of WSL) , and all who have joined the resistance against “windowing.” Boycotts aren’t for everyone, but this one has its reasons.

  • The Digital Public Library of America, for continued development of the non-profit Exchange and for leading in the establish of of the SimplyE Advisory Council, especially to Michele.

  • Georgia Public Library Service and Baker & Taylor for establishing an innovative state-wide digital platform of children, eReadsKids. Thanks for showing what can be done, and doing it above all for the children.

  • Harper Collins Publishers for NOT making any changes in their license models in the last 18 months. Hey, HC—want to earn an RF Gold Star Award? Add a one copy/one user perpetual license option—even one pr library system—to give us flexibility to your current metered model, which is (despite all past criticism) the BEST model offered by the Big 5 today.

  • Ijeoma Oluo, an author for speaking truth on Twitter for libraries and those who need them.

  • The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) for fostering work on Fasten to develop standards for library APIs, including Nettie, Christoper, and a brilliant international team.

  • The New York Public Library and especially to Risa, Leonard, and Tony, for their continued support of Library Simplified (app name—SimplyE). It’s a lot of work but RF applauds the development of the “one App to Rule Them All,” providing an easy-to-use open source non-profit way to harness library content across platforms. Other systems might have flinched—you have shown Patience, Fortitude, and leonine courage.

  • OverDrive, for providing data effectively challenging publisher claims that libraries are “cannibalizing” sales and for funding the Panorama Project.

Jeers!

  • Amazon, for all your fine work ensuring that people need a credit card to be informed citizens. We’d award you a 100,00 lumps of coal, but you’d just give one piece to each of your exploited warehouse workers for Christmas and use the rest to press a diamond for the CEO. Nothing for you, just like you give to us.

  • Blackstone Audio, you know perfectly well why. We award you with one black stone—a lump of coal for you

  • Hachette, for moving from perpetual to metered licenses on audiobooks. It isn’t bad enough that we have to renew most of our e-book collections every two years, you have to throw audio in as well? Thanks on behalf of all library users with visual or hand impairments who rely on libraries for content they need.

  • Macmillan, you know ever better than Blackstone why. We award you 231,842 (and counting) signatures on a petition.

  • Simon & Schuster, we appreciate you moving from one to two year licenses, but who factored your prices when you made the change? We award you a pocket calculator so you can multiply by 2 next time.

People of the Year:

This is a tough one—too tough for us! So, alphabetically by first name Alan, Carmi, Ijeoma, Michele, and NYPL Library Simplified Team, thanks for your great work this year. You are co-winners.

Thanks, too, to the ReadersFirst Working Group for all their advocacy work this year.

Thanks, finally, to every librarian who licensed content for your system or who helped someone get content this year. Your service to our readers is the reason for our service to libraries. Keep helping people get content! We’ll help try to make that content everything they want.