GUEST COMMENTARY | by PATRICIA UTTARO
Libraries, e-books, and the freedom to read Public libraries are champions of books and defenders of your freedom to read. They provide a wide variety of reading materials and access for all. It’s an important role, because a free society depends on freedom to read to ensure universal access to information, new ideas, different opinions, learning through books, and knowledge. These activities are protected by the US Constitution. But the freedom to read through your public library could be in jeopardy. Several major publishers have refused to sell or license e-books to public libraries. Some make e-books available at very high prices or impose heavy restrictions on their use. Those obstacles severely limit library e-book selections – particularly the most popular books – and make it inconvenient for people to get e-books through their library. The projected growth of e-books over the next five years could transform that inconvenience into an encroachment on your freedom to read.
E-books are here to stay. A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers report projects that by the year 2016, e-books will make up 50 percent of the US trade-book market, and spending on printed books will be limited. A study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that 20 percent of adults had read an e-book over the past year. And libraries are already responding to the trend, with 76 percent offering e-books as part of their collections and 39 percent lending e-readers. It is possible that in the not-toodistant future, new books may only be published in digital format. When that happens, those with an e-book reader, a credit card, and disposable income will have the most freedom to read – creating a deeper-than-ever digital divide and, even worse, a significant knowledge divide. And that would be far more than an inconvenience.
Just as libraries have reinvented themselves over the years to adjust to dramatic changes in research needs, reading habits, and lending practices, traditional book publishers must reinvent their business models and their relationships with libraries to meet their bottom lines while continuing to support broad access. Librarians and library organizations across the country are drawing attention to the challenges of e-book access and trying to get publishers to change their practices. Right now, there are discussions and pilots underway between some publishers and some libraries to develop mutually acceptable models for e-book library lending. These discussions will be productive only if they lead to broad action to make e-books available to all libraries for use by the reading public with no strings attached. But libraries and librarians can’t resolve this important universal access
issue alone. They need readers, stakeholders, and policy makers to voice their concerns about the importance of preserving the freedom to read despite changes in what books look like today. The basic right to read hasn’t changed – only the vehicle for delivering books to anyone and everyone seeking information, opinions, knowledge, and the pure joy of sitting down with a good book. You can support this effort by reaching out to community stakeholders, local and state elected officials, and your members of Congress to make them aware of the e-book lending challenge and to get their support for preserving universal freedom to read and for encouraging committed collaboration between libraries and publishers. Because your freedom to read is worth fighting for. Uttaro is director of the Rochester Public Library, Monroe County Library System.
City’s coverage of the candidates
I look forward to reading your paper every week, because it is the only publication that does such a great job of covering local events and business, etc. I was extremely disappointed with your recent article concerning the Congressional race between Maggie Brooks and Louise Slaughter. I have never read anything so one-sided in my life. You may as well change the name of your paper to the Liberal Democrat Press. Maybe you need a refresher course on what journalism really is and what your responsibilities are in that regard. As a newspaper, you should be providing in-depth, thoughtprovoking information on the candidates. Instead, you spent three pages bashing Maggie City
Brooks and little more than a page on how wonderful Louise Slaughter is. I am not disputing your assertions in the Maggie Brooks article, but are you seriously going to tell us that there is nothing negative in Louise Slaughter’s 26 years of governing? The only thing I detest more than the lies all the politicians spew is the unabashed bias in the media. You are supposed to provide us with unbiased reporting with all the facts and let us determine where we go from there. You should be ashamed of yourself. You have no right to call yourself a newspaper; all you are is an advertisement for whomever you support. I’ll continue to read the paper, because you do a great job covering the local restaurants and community, but I am definitely passing by on anything with perceived substantive value, because I can’t believe your coverage will be honest. JOSEPH SIRACUSE, ROCHESTER
November 7-13, 2012
November 7-13, 2012 Vol 42 No 9 250 North Goodman Street Rochester, New York 14607-1199 themail@rochester-citynews.com phone (585) 244-3329 fax (585) 244-1126 rochestercitynewspaper.com Publishers: William and Mary Anna Towler Editor: Mary Anna Towler Asst. to the publishers: Matt Walsh Editorial department themail@rochester-citynews.com Features editor: Eric Rezsnyak News editor: Christine Carrie Fien Staff writers: Tim Louis Macaluso, Jeremy Moule Music editor: Willie Clark Music writer: Frank De Blase Calendar editor: Rebecca Rafferty Contributing writers: Kate Antoniades, Paloma Capanna, Casey Carlsen, Roman Divezur, George Grella, Susie Hume, Andy Klingenberger, Dave LaBarge, Kathy Laluk, Michael Lasser, James Leach, Ron Netsky, Dayna Papaleo, Rebecca Rafferty, David Yockel Jr. Editorial intern: Lillian Dickerson Art department artdept@rochester-citynews.com Art director/production manager: Matt DeTurck Designer: Aubrey Berardini Photographers: Frank De Blase, Matt DeTurck, Michael Hanlon Advertising department ads@rochester-citynews.com Advertising sales manager: Betsy Matthews Account executives: Tom Decker, Annalisa Iannone, William Towler
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News. Music. Life. Greater Rochester’s Alternative Newsweekly
The editor’s response: We’re an alternative newsweekly, and in our 41 years we’ve never kept our liberal leanings a secret. We are committed to the journalistic standards of accuracy and fairness, but we are proudly opinionated. Our Brooks-Slaughter articles are part of our annual election endorsement package.
Congress must back diplomacy
I worry about another devastating and unneeded war. I hope whoever wins the presidency supports real, sustained diplomacy and that my members of Congress work toward this goal. As former US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Pickering recently wrote, “Patient, committed diplomacy is the only way to realize the long-term and durable objectives of an Iran without nuclear weapons and a region without war.” I was glad to hear both presidential candidates mention diplomacy with Iran during the debate this week,
but I’m concerned that some in Congress are already saying that the time for talking with Iran is over. Think about how much different our world would have been if our leaders had attacked China when it was developing a nuclear weapon. A lot of the same things that are being said about Iran now were being said about China then. War is not the answer to the conflict between the US and Iran. While in the debate I was glad to hear talk about peaceful resolution of the conflict between the US and Iran, I’m concerned that Congress could undermine diplomacy. I hope our senators will speak out on the Senate floor in support of diplomacy to prevent war and a nuclear-armed Iran and oppose any legislation that puts roadblocks in the way of diplomacy. AL GUNDLACH, ROCHESTER
Fracking complexity
New York has the nation’s worst, and most abusive,
compulsory-integration law, whereby people who do not want their land fracked can be forced to do so if enough people in their “unit” have signed leases (“Fracking’s Insurance Issues,” News). This compulsory-integration action amounts to a state-mandated violation of a mortgage holder’s mortgage terms, as well as violating homeowners’ insurance policy (turning a home property into a heavy industrial site, to name just one violation), subjecting policy holders to re-evaluation of their policies and higher premiums – or no premiums at all. As current law stands, if the fracking driller or any of its sub-contractors lack sufficient insurance to cover damages, accidents, personal injury, or death, the leaseholder is then liable to have the risk transferred to his insurance company. Nobody in his right mind would write a policy in such a situation. DWAIN WILDER
Posted on rochestercitynewspaper.com
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