Tag: Featured

Apropos our previous post on the continued vitality of used hardcover and paperback book sales in this otherwise digital age, the folks at OverDrive are out with some data on the flip side of that story. Among the 88,000 schools and libraries worldwide for which OverDrive provides licensed access to e-books, audiobooks, magazines and other print material in digital formats, readers borrowed 555 million digital items in 2022, up a healthy 10% over 2021 Read More …

One of the more striking aspects of the conversation around Musk’s pursuit of Twitter, including from Musk himself, has been its U.S.-centric focus. Much of the discussion has been framed against the backdrop of the U.S. culture war and the ersatz controversy over so-called cancel culture, such as around whether Musk will invite U.S. figures like Donald Trump, Katie Hopkins and Alex Jones to rejoin the platform after they were banned by the previous management for violating Twitter’s policies on hate speech and disinformation. Yet Twitter is a global platform. Read More …

The peak TV wave has crested and is now breaking. The urgent question facing Netflix and the rest of the SVOD field is whether it can figure out how to keep swimming, or get swamped in the surf. Read More …

It’s only Monday, but the Worst Idea of the Week Award (Early Decision) goes to: the GOP-controlled Kentucky state legislature, for its override of Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill that will allow local politicians to appoint anyone they want to library boards and block major library spending. Read More …

The solons behind the various library e-book bills may harbor a sincere, good-faith belief that they were merely supporting state-supported free public libraries and protecting consumers. But the striking similarity among the bills in multiple smacks of an orchestrated campaign to create new law on digital redistribution of copyrighted works on a state-by-state level without having to confront the federal Copyright Act head-on. Read More …