On today’s #FollowReader Twittersation, we’ll be joined by Heather McCormack (@HMcCormack), Book Review Editor of Library Journal. Heather’s article (“Patrons Are Consumers, and Consumers Are Patrons; or, How Publishers Can Learn To Stop Worrying and Love Libraries Again”) on the Tools of Change blog has become a jumping off point for a larger discussion about how publishers and libraries can work together and create a win/win for everyone — including readers!
Among questions we will address:
- Do libraries provide marketing opportunities for publishers, or are they siphoning away potential book buyers?
- Should ebooks be treated differently than paper books when it comes to library lending?
- Is it a good idea for U.S. libraries to go to a system such as that in the U.K., where micro-royalties are paid to publishers for each lent title?
- Would the “Brigadoon Library,” (required reading! click on that link and go read Tim’s article – it’s chock full of interesting ideas and good information on the library/publisher relationship) as proposed by Tim Spalding (@librarythingTim) of Library Thing. Also go and read this handy list that Tim compiled.
I encourage everyone: readers, publishers, librarians, those who have an interest in the industry, to join in the conversation tomorrow. Should be interesting.
To join the #followreader conversation, here’s what to do:
- Just before 4pm ET today, log in to Twitter or whatever interface you prefer. (We recommend Tweetchat, which refreshes quickly and automatically loads your hashtag when you are in the discussion.)
- To follow the discussion, run a search for #followreader
- I’ll start by asking a few questions, before opening up the discussion to the group.
- To post a comment to the discussion, make sure that the hashtag #followreader is in each tweet you write.
Library Journal is so great, thanks very much for this post!