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Libraries of the Future!
Ebooks are driving momentous changes. In Vancouver, librarians are inviting the public to help reinvent their mission.
There are certain things, good and bad, that ebooks can’t offer. Old bookmarks, penciled annotations and chocolate smudges between the pages… the tactile human touches that make die-hard proponents of print swear they’ll never make the switch.
But those traditionalists are becoming the minority of library borrowers, as the relative convenience of ebooks — downloadable from the comfort of one’s home — appeals to more and more library users. According to recently-released stats from the Vancouver Public Library, the lending and borrowing of electronic content, and in particular ebooks, is exploding.
At VPL, ebook downloads have increased almost tenfold year-on-year, from 3,718 in 2010 to 35,671 in 2011. On top of that, the library estimates that if the current growth rate of ebook borrowing continues, it will take less than five years for ebooks to dominate circulation.
Of course, the explosion of ebooks isn’t news to the publishing industry, which is still adjusting to the digital shift. Scott McIntyre, the publisher and chairman of Vancouver-based D&M Publishing, recently shared his take with The Tyee that sooner rather than later, at least in the publishing world, ebooks “will conquer all.” And there’s significant evidence to support McIntyre’s prophecy. Mid 2010, Amazon.com reported that sales for its Kindle reader outstripped hardcover sales, and by January 2011, Kindle books surpassed paperback sales as well.
Yet while the story of publishers reeling over the digital surge has been told, how are libraries affected by the shift? As VPL’s director of planning and development Daphne Wood points out, there are a number of issues the library faces with the takeover. Issues like how ebooks are licensed to libraries, concerns about access to e-readers (and a potential new “digital divide”), and how to build modern collections that appease everyone, are top of mind for many librarians.
By Robyn Smith, 05March2012, TheTyee.ca
B.C. teachers will strike Monday, BCTF says
VANCOUVER – B.C.’s teachers will strike Monday, B.C. Teachers’ Federation president Susan Lambert says.
Lambert said Thursday morning the province’s 41,000 teachers “will withdraw their services” for three days, beginning Monday.
“We have a legal right strike for three days,” Lambert told reporters gathered at BCTF offices in Vancouver. “That’s our intention.”
If the provincial government’s legislation is enacted before Wednesday, Lambert said the union will consult its members about the next step.
Lambert said she recognizes the problems the walkout will cause parents.
“We understand that this will cause you concern,” she said, stressing the walkout is necessary to stand up to government bullying.
Read The Vancouver Sun complete article here.
By Evan Duggan with Tara Carman, Vancouver Sun March 1, 2012 10:44 AM
With a file from Andrea Woo
Government Preparing Legislation to End Labour Dispute with Teachers
Education Minister George Abbott has asked his staff to work through the weekend to prepare back-to-work legislation aimed at ending a labour dispute with B.C. teachers.
Abbott made the announcement Thursday after a senior official in the Labour Ministry concluded a negotiated deal was “very unlikely.”
“I am satisfied now that for the days, weeks and probably months ahead, a freely negotiated collective agreement is an impossibility,” he said. “I will be moving as quickly as we can on this.”
He said students are paying the price for the dispute and he can no longer “in good conscience” allow the job action to continue.
A back-to-work bill could be introduced in the B.C. legislature as early as next week.
Vancouver Sun full text article here.
By Lindsay Kines and Rob Shaw, Victoria Times Colonist February 24, 2012
lkines@timescolonist.com
rshaw@timescolonist.com
Click here to read more stories from The Victoria Times Colonist
BCTF decries ‘second decade of cuts in BC schools’
The BC Teachers’ Federation is calling the latest budget freeze on education spending the beginning of a ‘second decade of cuts’ to B.C. schools.
Finance Minister Kevin Falcon announced education spending would remain at $4.7 billion per year until the 2014/15 school year, with an additional $165 million doled out during that period for the Learning Improvement Fund, the government’s yet-to-be announced-solution to the removal of Bills 27/28 after the B.C. Supreme Court rule them unconstitutional last year.
Although no actual cuts to education spending are being made, the Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) says not keeping up with inflation will force districts to cut programs and services to the tune of $100 million this year in order to balance their budgets.
“A whole generation of students have grown up going to school in larger classes without adequate support and a lack of specialist teachers to meet diverse needs,” BCTF President Susan Lambert said in a press release issued by the union this afternoon.
“Now we’re looking at another three years of ongoing cuts and increasing demands on teachers to fill the gaps and meet students’ needs.”
Lambert says school spending would need to increase by $130 million per year to keep up with inflation, and says the $165 million for the Learning Improvement Fund won’t cut it.
“The LIF amounts to mere pennies per day per child,” Lambert says in the release. “This is a massive theft of educational opportunities from the next generation of BC kids.”
By Katie Hyslop February 21, 2012 04:21 pm – The Hook Education Blog
Katie Hyslop reports on youth, education and poverty issues for The Tyee and others.
(c) The Tyee Newspaper