Librarian in Black Blog – Sarah Houghton

Bless me, O Biblioblogosphere, for I have sinned.

I have betrayed the trust of my librarian people by *gasp* loving my Kindle like I am told I would love a child if I had any interest in being a parent, which I don’t.  But I do have an interest in reading digital content on a sleek, affordable, and easy-to-use device.  Thus the Kindle.

In true geek fashion I recorded my Kindle unboxing (complete with Space Invader wall clings in the background).

Let me tell you why I love my Kindle so.  But before I gush like a schoolgirl in love with Edward Cullen, let me tell you that I feel guilty for loving it.  I boycott the Kindle as a librarian but love it as a consumer.

• Stellar User Interface Design: The Kindle has a gorgeous form factor.  It’s easy to hold in your hands — light, smooth, and perfectly sized for my hands anyway.  The user interface is easy and intuitive, end of story.
• Smooth Content Delivery: The simplicity and speed of getting content is amazing.  I’ve been using the Kindle app on my Android phone for months now, and it literally takes you 5 seconds to buy and start reading a book from the Kindle Store. How long does it take to start reading a library eBook from the point you decide to download it? On the Kindle itself it’s just as easy.
• Cross-Device Content Delivery: Amazon was brilliant in being the distributor for the device, the content itself, and the interface/software used to access the content. But they were doubly brilliant in offering the content & interface on other devices through Kindle Reading apps, so you can use your desktop, laptop, iPhone, iPad, Android phone, etc. to access the Kindle universe of eBooks.  The Kindle device itself is secondary…they really covered their bases.
• Seamless Syncing: Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs up your library and where you left off in your books without you having to do anything. Not having to think is good, yeah?  Steve Krug would be proud.
• Public Domain Title Access: You can get free public domain titles onto your Kindle through free eBook sites like Project Gutenberg, all linked to with instructions from the Kindle website.

Now that we’ve covered the pros, here’s why I detest the Kindle as a librarian:

• No Access to Library-owned eBooks (for shame): As you probably know, the Kindle is the only eReader devices that doesn’t allow library digital content onto it.  The nook, Sony Reader, the sad little kobo, and even the iPad all allow library digital content.  Amazon would rather only sell you their stuff.  In the case of eBooks, Amazon does not support the standard EPUB format.  It only allows for content that is in one of its approved formats: their proprietary DRM-format (.azw), plain text files (.txt), unprotected (read: no DRM) Mobipocket files (.mobi or .prc), unprotected (read: no DRM) PDF files (.pdf), and this odd and not-often-used Topaz format (.tpz). There are programs (like Calibre) that can convert non-DRMed EPUB files into unprotected Mobipocket files so they can go on your Kindle.  And since there are scripts you can run to convert DRM-ed EPUB files into non-DRMed EPUB files, you can indeed get these books on your Kindle…but illegally unfortunately.  The fact that Amazon doesn’t allow library-owned eBooks onto its devices is a travesty.  It’s wrong on every level.  But Amazon has no real motivation to open it up.  They make money from selling people books.  If people could get those same books on their Kindles for free and without paying Amazon, just by logging in with a library card number, Amazon is going to lose some business.  And losing business for the sake of looking like you love libraries is sadly not a winning proposition in our society.  Here are some straight-forward instructions to help you get around the idiotic DRM rules and get some library eBooks (MOBI only) onto your Kindle.  This does clearly violate Kindle’s terms of service, the library eBook vendor’s terms of service, and even copyright law.  But you know what?  All you’re doing is accessing an eBook your library owns and wants to check out to you on a device of your choosing.  Goddess forbid we can actually provide content that isn’t device-exclusionary!  So you know what?  Go for it.
• No Sharing or Selling (err, legally): Update: You can now share selected titles (none of the 13 on my device now, sadly), share a title once with another Kindle or Kindle app user for 14 days, and only U.S. residents can share their titles). As with almost all consumer-purchased eBooks, Amazon’s Kindle eBooks forbid the transfer of the book to any other user or to a different (non-Amazon) device.  This is a violation of the First-Sale Doctrine which guarantees someone like an individual or a library to share the book once it’s purchased, loan it out, or sell it.  None of us can do this with eBooks or other digital media like movies and music.  It’s wrong and many people find ways around it because, frankly, the Kindle was not that hard to crack.

Perhaps someday I will make peace with the fact that the Kindle universe makes me happy.  Perhaps someday Amazon will allow digital content from libraries onto its devices, will accept industry standards, and stop being an inbred walled garden of capitalist greed.  But I’m not holding my breath.

W00t!

You can now see my appearance on the #TWIT Network’s Tech News Today show at: http://twit.tv/tnt145 The main part of my appearance starts at 9:45, but I show up periodically after that main part too.

The TWIT Network, This Week in Tech, is based up in Petaluma CA (not far from my house) and has the tagline “netcasts you love from people you trust.”  It’s an all-internet-based technology news network with over 20 different shows that you can watch live (& participate in live interactive chat during the show), stream later in audio or video, or download as podcasts or videocasts.  I listen to about a dozen of the shows religiously, using my 3-4 hours in the car every day to catch up on what’s going on with technology of all different sorts.  It definitely helps me do my job a lot better.

So, as a fan of TWIT, I was all aflutter when they opened up a contest for an open mic show where fans of the show could go onto the Tech News Today show as guests.  I applied and somehow by the grace of the binary gods was accepted, along with the other two guests (Joshua Caleb and Derrick Chen) who are likewise geeked up.  The experience was a ton of fun and I’d welcome the chance to do it again.

And really, people, if you bother to read my blog or follow me on Twitter and don’t yet watch or listen to any of the TWIT shows, you are missing out.  Check out This Week in Tech & Tech News Today first and then build your healthy addiction from there.  Because addiction will follow….and the voices of Leo Laporte and Tom Merritt will be like honey upon thine ears, and music to thy soul.  Well, at least you’ll learn stuff anyway

The newest ALA Library Technology Report, of which I am a contributing author, was just published: Privacy and Freedom of Information in 21st Century Libraries.  I wrote the chapter on internet filtering, which like the other chapters is kind of a Cliff Notes version of the major issues with filtering and intellectual freedom issues for libraries.

The cover is truly awesome. Good job ALA!  Also, let me acknowledge the other authors for their stellar work: Jason Griffey, Eli Neiburger, Barbara M. Jones, Angela Maycock, and Deborah Caldwell-Stone.  I read through it and learned a lot about intellectual freedom in today’s digital libraries.  I think you will too!

The Library of Congress has blocked access on all of its computers to Wikileaks.  This action was taken, according to the Library of Congress blog, in direct response to a memo from the White House Executive Branch.  According to a New York Times article, the White House has since said that it issued no such directives to block Wikileaks in any government agency.  I am unconcerned with the “he said, she said” childish finger pointing of the different arms of government.  I don’t care who said what to whom in a memo, an email, or in a hallway conversation.

I am, however, gravely concerned that the leading library of the United States has willfully and arbitrarily blocked access to information.  Blocking access to information, any information, is censorship. This action is unconscionable.

I condemn the Library of Congress action in every way, and like others I fully reject their attempt at justifications or defenses of their action.  There is never a justification for blocking access to information in a library — never.

The Library of Congress’s decision is a violation of the First Amendment and a violation of the American Library Association’s Bill of Rights.  Moreover, it is a violation of the professional ethics of librarians to always provide free access to all information.  The Librarian of Congress has violated our ethics knowingly.  I am horrified.

The documents leaked on Wikileaks have been posted on the free and open web for some time now, and are therefore pieces of open and free information on the web, as is all other information in the United States.  These documents are not illegal.  So why, pray tell, does anyone have the right to block access to them in a federal government institution?

In this case particularly, access to this information is even more critical to the continued success of an open democracy.  The documents contained in the Wikileaks collections often expose the federal government’s dereliction of duty, incompetence, poor judgment, and even criminal actions.  Exposing our government’s actions is a matter of concern for every single citizen.  Is this not a golden case study for why we need freedom of information in a democracy?  Is it not a golden opportunity for the Librarian of Congress to stand firm with his professional ethics, and say “Hell no, I won’t block access to information!” ?

Interestingly, there is already a functional problem with this decision for the Congressional Research Service within the Library of  Congress.  The CRS researches government and public information to inform lawmakers of current important issues.  The CRS will now be unable to access Wikileaks to include the leaked material’s primary content in their reports to Congress.  So now Congress won’t know what’s in Wikileaks?  Oh yeah, that’s good for democracy.

The Progressive Librarians Guild has called for formal condemnation from the American Library Association.  I second that motion.  From the PLG’s post:

We call on the American Library Association (ALA) to condemn unequivocally this move by the Library of Congress to actively conspire in preventing access to information in the public interest. Blocking access to this published information is censorship, plain and simple, and supporting sanctions against reading is endorsing abridgment of intellectual freedom. The documentation’s open publication by an agency of the free press, Wikileaks, renders its government classification status irrelevant.

It would seem that someone was more concerned about saving his relationships with politicians than he was about upholding Constitutional rights and his professional ethics.  This is a deeply disturbing precedent and an affront to all librarians everywhere.

The Library of Congress should be ashamed of its action of pure censorship, reverse the block immediately, and be censured by the American Library Association for malfeasance.   I also encourage President Obama’s administration to get involved in the fray immediately.  If Obama is still “committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government” as stated in 2009, then this is a perfect opportunity to re-emphasize that commitment.