Sadly, unlike a regular person, a library cannot pay Amazon or Barnes & Noble for an eBook and then lend it out to people. We can buy a printed book from these companies, stick it on the shelf, and lend it out–but digital content is treated differently by the publishers and the companies who manage digital content licensing. We desperately want to offer you these eBooks. But the companies won’t let us. As your library, we commit to continuing advocacy for change in these policies.
For more info and to see who to contact, please see bit.ly/noebooks
The new privacy policy removes the separation between YouTube, Google search, and other Google products. By describing the change as “treat[ing] you as a single user,” Google intends to remove the privacy-protective separations from YouTube and Google search
Imagine buying a car that locks you into one brand of fuel. A new BMW, for example, that only runs on BMW gas. There are plenty of BMW gas stations around, even a few in your neighborhood, so convenience isn’t an issue. But if one of those other gas stations offers a discount, a membership program, or some other attractive marketing campaign, you can’t participate. You’re locked in with the BMW gas stations.
This could never happen, right? Consumers are too smart to buy into something like this. Or are they? After all, isn’t that exactly what’s happening in the ebook world?
We’re familiar with the argument: the modern age is bankrupting our attention spans, we are all technology-addled morons clicking semi-consciously between browser screens, unable to complete the simplest of tasks: mesmerised, drooling, catatonic simpletons…
The answer is NO, of course, so says David Foster Wallace…
[click the link to find out exactly what DFW has to say]
Despite the fact that some people believe Charles Dickens can not be read or appreciated by today’s gadget-addled callow youth, the rest of us are celebrating the 200th anniversary of his birth — born on this day, February 7th, in 1812
