December 3, 2016

Start-Ups Take Library Jobs | Reinventing Libraries

ljx130901webHellman

Three years ago, I wrote in LJ that “libraries are so valuable that they attract voracious new competition with every technological advance.” At the time, I was thinking about Google, Apple, Amazon, and Wikipedia as the gluttonous innovators aiming to be hired for the jobs that libraries had been doing. I imagined Facebook and Twitter to be the sort of competitors most likely to be attracted by the flame of library value. But it’s the new guys that surprise you. To review the last three years of change in the library world, I’d like to focus on some of the start-ups that have newly occupied digital niches in the reading ecosystem. It’s these competitors that libraries will need to understand and integrate with to remain relevant.

Goodreads Acquisition Presents Opportunity for LibraryThing

Goodreads Acquisition Presents Opportunity for LibraryThing

Amazon’s recent acquisition of Goodreads will likely have a ripple effect on other social media sites targeted at book lovers, with LibraryThing and Bookish potentially drawing membership from any defectors unhappy with the sale. Meanwhile, many Kindle owners will be introduced to Goodreads for the first time, as the site’s social media functions are integrated with Kindle devices. “Goodreads was fully independent…. it made them the natural allies of people who wanted to avoid the consolidation of the industry, in particular publishers,” LibraryThing founder Tim Spalding told LJ.

Feedback: Letters to LJ, April 15, 2012 Issue

Toronto Board politics I am a retired Toronto Public Library (TPL) librarian (28 years) and past president of the Toronto Public Library Workers Union (TPLWU). Thanks to LJ for the article “Toronto Library Closed by Strike.” The current dispute at TPL has implications for public libraries and library workers across Canada and North America. I […]

It’s a Jungle Out There | Peer to Peer Review

Barbara Fister connects the dots between chicken farmers, microbreweries, book lovers, and scholars.
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