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Seattle — ALA Midwinter Meeting Highlights      Cognotes • Page 5

Caroline Kennedy: Libraries Are Intimate Places of Self-Discovery

By Brad Martin LAC Group

I was fortunate to grow up in a family that cared about words and their meaning,” said Caroline Kennedy, as she began her speech in the Auditorium Speaker Series moderated by ALA President-elect Barbara Stripling on January 27.

Kennedy's latest book Poems to Learn by Heart is due to be published in March 2013 by Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Publishing Worldwide and is a companion to another collection of poetry called A Family of Poems.

“Libraries, whether personal, academic, or public are intimate places of self-discovery and inspiration. As we look at the titles lined up on the shelves, we imagine how we might be different if we knew about all these things, and that sense of curiosity and possibility gives a life-enhancing sense of hope,” she said. Kennedy spoke about how the family house was “full of books,” and how she spent her childhood exploring them. “Because both my parents were avid readers, reading has allowed me to connect with them through the things they loved most - their books.”

“My parents and grandparents understood not only the importance of setting children free to discover the world of words, but also how great works of literature can knit us together - a process that can happen in a school or a community just as it can in a family.”

“Reading and reciting poetry was a gift we gave to each other, not just a solitary pastime,” Kennedy said. She related how she and her brother regularly had to either choose or write a poem as a gift for their mother's birthday or Christmas to copy or illustrate. “And, when we were feeling particularly competitive, we would memorize it.” She also recalled how “no visit to grandmother's house was complete without her challenging us to recite the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.”

Fortunately, their mother Jacqueline Kennedy kept these poems in a scrapbook, and her daughter Caroline eventually turned them into A Family of Poems. For her forthcoming book Poems to Learn by Heart, Kennedy enlisted some help from some students at a Bronx high school, who she asked to be her research assistants.

Kennedy, who has worked with the New York City Department of Education and has advocated for increased support for public libraries, said, “knowledge is the most important gift we can give each other.”

“Libraries contain what we need to transform into a more tolerant, just, and peaceful society,” said Kennedy, who will be the Honorary Chair of National Library Week in April 2013. “I look forward to helping you in that important work.”

ALA President-Elect Barbara Stripling thanked Kennedy for her support. Kennedy responded to several questions on topics including leadership, social justice, libraries and librarians, and her involvement with the John E Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston.

Best-selling author/editor Caroline Kennedy talks about growing up in a home full of books during her Auditorium Speaker Series presentation January 27.

Digital Content Working Group Forecasts a Lively Future for Ebooks

By Stacey P. Flynn University of Maryland

On January 26, members of the ALA Digital Content Working Group presented highlights of their activities over the course of the last six months that focused on the future of ebook and digital content in the upcoming year. Formed in response to “urgent concerns” about access to ebooks in libraries, the group is charged with exploring and analyzing options to expand access and to create policy to overcome legal, technical and economic barriers to access.

Over the course of the last year, the group has produced a new toolkit EB-ook Media and Communications Toolkit to assist public libraries in dealing with the various business models for licensure, taking an assertive stand in creating policy, working with top publishers to address licensing issues, according to co-chair Sara Feldman who kicked off the program.

The group released its first Business Model Scorecard, an evaluation tool for public libraries to examine the variables of price, format, availability, perpetuity of licensing and accessibility. “Libraries have different ways of ranking all of these values as their different situations warrant. When I'm shopping for a new car, I look for more head room,” said Co-chair, Robert Wol-ven. “Not everyone cares about that.”

Plans for the upcoming year include formation of a task force to survey, analyze and evaluate the needs of school libraries and the needs of disabled users. Results of these surveys will most likely be available at Chicago's Annual Conference in June.

Formed in response to “urgent concerns” about access to ebooks in libraries, the group is charged with exploring and analyzing options to expand access and to create policy to overcome legal, technical and economic barriers to access

Mr. Wolven moderated a lively panel discussion of industry leaders, speculating on what the future might hold as these new formats evolve and transform patrons’ reading experiences. He was joined by George Coe, President of Baker & Taylor, Matt Tempelis, Global Cloud Library Manager at 3M and Jamie LaRue, Director of Douglas County Libraries in Colorado. “It's a wonderful time of exploration and experimentation but also a time to define three or four models that work for libraries,” said Tempelis. “This has ramifications that could affect libraries at a global level.” In addition, search tools, marketing and displays have all been impacted by the unexpected explosion of newer formats.

In terms of OPAC design, Coe forecasts a movement away from the “search and discovery tools” in favor of “push” technology which allows patrons to access “read-a-likes”, recommendations and provides more active participation through social media tools. But despite these changes, the panelists seemed to agree that libraries must also maintain their role as repositories of culture and therefore must advocate for ownership of digital content over consignment and limited use licenses. LaRue spoke about creating a web platform that would bring together free and open sources content, original content, as well as streams for licenses ebooks housed in the collection and maintained by the library to use and discard based on its own circulation.