Let’s Talk About Public Libraries!

This is National Library Week. As a BIG fan of public libraries I feel compelled to write a post about this unbelievably awesome institution. The audacity of this idea, that knowledge has to be within easy reach for the general public free of cost, is so beautiful that sometimes I find it hard to believe that it actually materialized!

With continued talk of funding issues and budget cuts, I know many libraries are struggling to provide all the services. I also know that many folks feel that with e-readers and Wikipedia there’s little use for traditional libraries any more. Not true. If we as a society choose to commit to books, education, culture and knowledge, there’ll always be need for libraries. It is a place I learnt the joy of walking in and browsing and making random discoveries and it has been a privilege to see my children walk the same path. I have loved the opportunities to rent exercise videos and foreign films, the chance to attend library performances and the occasions to take my children to workshops. In our house, it is a place which is associated with all kinds of positive memories: the place where we go to stock up for long winter weekends and the place where we rush when in extreme author-glom mode. I dont believe I can say this of too many other things with equal conviction – I have never left a library feeling disappointed!

It gave me great joy to find this among the Webby Award nominees for 2012. (As an aside, it is a great place to find some wonderful websites because it is after all honoring the best of the Internet! – I know, like you don’t already have enough sites to track!)

I love the way they have used social media to generate a conversation. Isn’t it nice the way three of my favorite things – libraries, social media and activism – all came together in that video?

I believe the National Library Week is an US tradition, but libraries the world over need acknowledgement. Hope you get the time to stop by your nearest library this week and as you step in I wish for you the spurt of joy that I feel as I enter mine!

Related articles

• Celebrate National Library Week, April 8-14 (claytonstatelibrary.wordpress.com)
• Celebrate Libraries! (mitbc.org)

Ebooks – The Leap Forward

The Kindle & Your Library!

It was a tough choice to decide on what to blog about today – Facebook’s new round of changes or Kindle becoming library-friendly. Both are big news items but I think in the long run Kindle’s decision is going to impact our lives a lot more.

Even as I say this, I remember all the mis-directed corporate judgement down the ages:

“Well informed people know it is impossible to transmit the voice over wires and that were it possible to do so, the thing would be of no practical value” is attributed to an editorial in the Boston Post from 1865.

“[Television] won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after the first six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.” – Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century-Fox, 1946.

“That the automobile has practically reached the limit of its development is suggested by the fact that during the past year no improvements of a radical nature have been introduced.”– Scientific American, Jan. 2, 1909.

As they say, nothing like hindsight to provide 20/20 vision! So, let me use this paragraph to clarify that I am not questioning Facebook’s impact. I believe that today’s changes with the profile timeline and real time updates will be part of a cumulative package that influences our idea of social identity, privacy and maybe even affect our personal choices. However, the systemic change of FB is already in place and this is all the tweaking.

Kindle, on the other hand, is still working slowly at redefining the world of books and reading. While many have adopted ebooks and taken to the idea of electronic reading, ardent readers have always asked the question about whether the device will provide access to library books. This is because readers without deep pockets have always been earnest library patrons and frequented second-hand bookstores. I see today’s Kindle announcement as the point of shifting focus in the ebook debate. Yes, Nook and other e-readers had the library link but Kindle has the major market share in this market and so todays’ news is a BIG DEAL.

As someone who has checked out ebooks on my laptop at 10:00pm, I can see the appeal of easy access to free books anywhere, anytime! And the convenience of reading on an ereader is way better. The ABC news anchor joked this morning that soon we’ll not need those big buildings for storing books – I hope it never comes to that, but I do think this move by Kindle is a giant leap for ebooks!

Locke has the Key: Lessons from a Self-Publisher

The big news in the world of book publishing this week has been that self-published author John Locke has joined the select group of eight writers who have sold more than a million e-books on Kindle. The geek in me is greatly thrilled by the fact that Locke shares his name with the famous English philosopher, who is called the “Father of Liberalism.” The idea that we make our own selves seems like a fitting philosophy for a successful self-published author, right?

Image courtesy of Amazon

Other than the thrill of the name, the news about Locke has raised some other points to ponder as well:

• As a commercial writer trying to keep a blog going, I am in awe of Locke who has managed to promote himself without the aid of an agent or a publisher. How does he manage the time? It must take relentless effort to reach his million-books in 5 months mark! As those who read this blog know, I believe in social media marketing – in the power of Facebook and Twitter. And I also know that these outlets take time. Locke’s achievement is all the more impressive to me because of this awareness.
• Does Locke’s success mean that traditional publishing is dead? There will be many inspired by Locke’s story who will try self-publishing and self-marketing – there will be some who will succeed. But there will be many who will not. The journey of a self-published writer can be long and lonely, much like that of a typical self-published blogger I imagine. To work towards success without props or feedback is not for everyone, and so there will be those who decide enough is enough. So, I don’t really see publishing houses closing down this month!
• I do think the move toward e-books is going to be relentless. Writing, editing and publishing have become easier with technology. We see that selling can also be simplified with a focus on e-books. As buying, reading and reviewing also becomes seamless and part of this process, hard-copy books are going to be the purview of quaint people called book-lovers. It is a bit like the vinyl vs mp3 debate – there is beauty, and there is practicality. While beauty will be cherished, practicality will win the everyday!