Feting Freedoms in Philadelphia
ALA Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia,
January 29–February 2, 1999
Table of Contents
At their 1999 Midwinter Meeting in Philadelphia January 29–February 2, ALA members celebrated one of the profession's most important principles. Appropriately, this conference—held in the city known as the nation's Cradle of Freedom—was highlighted by a gala dinner in the historic Wanamaker Building honoring the 30th anniversaries of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation. The lavish evening seemed an embodiment of ALA President Ann Symons's theme, “Celebrating the Freedom to Read! Learn! Connect! @ the Library.”
Sadly, the conference was marred by the death of longtime Councilor Marvin Scilken of an apparent heart attack early on the morning of February 3. The news cast a pall on the third session of Council, where 20 councilors offered heartfelt memories of Scilken, whom Symons characterized as “our conscience.” The tragedy struck many as eerily reminiscent of the sudden death of Elizabeth Futas on the floor of Council in Philadelphia four years earlier (AL, Mar. 1995, p. 213).
Debate over the recommendations of ALA's Outsourcing Task Force dominated the Midwinter Council agenda. Grappling with what constitutes acceptable contracting out and what approaches privatization and threatens intellectual freedom, the ALA governing body stopped short of issuing a statement of opposition to outsourcing but concluded that a formal study of its impact on library services and management was in order.
Once again, thanks in large part to preconference discussions conducted electronically over its Internet discussion group, Council's three meetings were conducted with great efficiency. Other than the outsourcing proposals, the longest discussion was devoted to a resolution critical of the Boy Scouts' policy of discrimination in the areas of sexual orientation and religious belief; the original resolution was withdrawn, and compromise language simply urging the Scouts to reconsider their policy passed with little resistance.
ALA Vice-president/President-elect Sarah Long, who presided over portions of the three Council sessions, called it “a new spirit of working together.”
William Gordon, who was attending his first Midwinter Meeting as ALA executive director, joked that he had “gained a new tolerance for debate” after seeing how smoothly and civilly Council sessions had been conducted.
The ALA Executive Board grappled with the future of the struggling Fund for America's Libraries, heeding the advice of fund board members who have called for a focus narrowed to three targets: the Spectrum Initiative, visibility and advocacy for libraries, and literacy.
As always, another highlight of Midwinter was the announcement of ALA's “Academy Awards” for children's literature: the Newbery Medal to Louis Sachar for Holes (Frances Foster/Farrar Straus and Giroux) and the Caldecott Medal to Mary Azarian for her illustrations for Snowflake Bentley (Houghton Mifflin). President Symons appeared with Sachar and Azarian on a February 2 Today Show segment spotlighting the awards.
Awards announcements proliferated at Midwinter, with winners of the John Cotton Dana Awards for public relations; the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Book Awards; and the American Institute of Architects/ALA Library Building Awards also revealed. (A roundup will appear in AL's September issue; the AIA award-winners will be featured in April.)
ALA President Ann Symons broke with tradition and presented a musical President's Program, King Island Christmas, causing some councilors to carp that it was inappropriate to present a denominational religious program at an ALA conference. Symons countered by saying that religion was not the point of the program and pronouncing that its success “far exceeded my expectations.”
Council passage of Symons's resolution on “Libraries: An American Value” was swift. Nearly a year in the making, the statement affirms a concise set of access and intellectual freedom principles. It will be published in a format suitable for framing in the June/July issue of American Libraries.
The conference, which drew 12,655 attendees to the City of Brotherly Love, coincided with a run of good fortune for local libraries: Philadelphia's library system is in the midst of a branch renaissance, with 53 facilities renovated and 21 to go by 2000, and during the conference Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge announced a far-reaching plan to more than double state support to public libraries. On top of that, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia issued a preliminary injunction February 1 blocking a law requiring commercial Web sites to obtain proof of age before allowing viewing of material considered harmful to minors, which was opposed by the FTRF. Paid attendance hit an all-time Midwinter record of 6,036, surpassing the 1996 San Antonio total of 5,933. Registration revenue totaled $523,707.
Friends of Libraries USA chose Grip the Raven (of Charles Dickens and Edgar Allan Poe fame) as its newest Literary Landmark. Some 40 people gathered in the Rare Book Department at the Free Library of Philadelphia, where the stuffed bird is kept in its original glass case made by Dickens. FLP President Elliot Shelkrot; William Lang, head of Rare Books; Karen Tallerico, head of the FLP Friends group; and Joseph McPeak, head of the Central Library, all lauded the selection of Grip. Shelkrot assured the group that the feathered icon had been “put through a freeze-drying process a few years ago” and was bug-free.
Although some Midwinter attendees suffered the aggravation of being told their hotels had overbooked and they had to be relocated, the mix-ups at 10 hotels were blamed on construction delays and labor conflicts. “Unfortunately, we were not warned in advance that this was going to happen, as required by our contract with the hotels,” said Deidre Ross, director of ALA Conference Services.
The revamped computer-messaging system sponsored by Ebsco Information Services was accessed nearly 5,000 times by message-seekers and message-senders at six consoles. After complaints of interface problems and downtime at last year's Annual Conference, EBSCO switched its system to Galaxy Information Services, which is used by ALA's registration staff. Attendees found the queues reasonably short, but expressed some annoyance at messaging monopolists who slowed down specific lines.
The Internet room and cafe and the many computers in the exhibits area set one record: “ALA had the largest contract for computer connections ever entered into by the Philadelphia Convention Center,” noted William Gordon.
ALA members are beginning to take notice of the work being done by the Conference Committee to reorganize annual conferences and by 2001 make them more user-friendly. ALA Associate Executive Director Mary Ghikas said survey letters consistently indicate that members feel too much of their time is used up traveling long distances from meeting to meeting. Coordinated programming will make it easier for conferees to follow tracks, she said. The question of if and how much conference fees will need to be raised is still undecided.
ALA's Diversity Office and ALA Editions conducted a focus group to uncover topics for publication and to open a dialogue between ALA Editions' editors and leaders concerned with addressing “real” diversity issues. “I'm interested in highlighting diverse and untapped leadership in ALA's membership,” said Sandra Rios Balderrama, ALA's diversity officer, “and encouraging this leadership's participation in the design of professional development tools.” Eighteen participants representing a range of ethnic backgrounds and specializations crammed into tight quarters to exchange opinions and ideas. ALA Editions Editorial Director Patrick Hogan said that what emerged from the discussion was the consensus that diversity should be a thread in all publications.
Sarah Long met for the first time at Midwinter with her new advisory task force, chaired by former ALA President Betty Turock, that will explore ways to make the three-year Spectrum Initiative into a permanent diversity program. The purpose of the task force is not to duplicate the efforts of other Spectrum committees, but to advise Long on the progress of the campaign to raise a $1-million endowment. Participating in the discussion were, among many others, E. J. Josey, Camila Alire, Ryoko Toyama, Richard Dougherty, and Ann Prentice.
Ellen Perlow, manager of information services at the Texas Woman's State University School of Library and Information Studies, has been critical of the Spectrum Initiative because it addresses diversity only in terms of ethnicity. In Philadelphia she presented the Fund for America's Libraries with a check for $2,500 to establish a scholarship for library-school students with physical disabilities.
Midday Saturday outside the Marriott hotel, a group of about 15 librarians rallied in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row in Pennsylvania for the 1981 murder of a police officer. His case and possible innocence were the topic at an Intellectual Freedom Discussion Group session sponsored by the Alternatives in Print Task Force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table.
Intellectual Freedom-Fighters Honored at Gala
Calling intellectual freedom “our professional foundation,” President Symons declared that librarians “have done our profession and the country proud.” Her remark was just one of the many paeans expressed at a gala dinner at which 550 guests celebrated the 30th anniversaries of ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom and the Freedom to Read Foundation.
In addition to paying tribute to an honor roll of more than 200 anticensorship fighters, Symons gave special presidential awards to four First Amendment champions: Judith Krug, OIF director since the office was founded; SIRS Mandarin owners Eleanor and Elliot Goldstein, sponsors of more than 30 intellectual freedom awards; and, posthumously, Forrest Spaulding, author of the Library Bill of Rights.
Symons also singled out several notable intellectual freedom-fighters in the audience, including Lee Brawner, who defended the video of The Tin Drum in Oklahoma City (AL, Dec. 1998, p. 17), and members of Mainstream Loudoun, who successfully challenged Internet filtering in Loudoun County, Va. (AL, Jan., p. 14).
In Philadelphia to pick up the Robert Downs Intellectual Freedom Award, they attended the OIF/FTRF gala wearing buttons that said “Battleaxe for 1st Amendment Rights,” getting the last word with the language that had been used against them by their opponents.
Robie Harris, author of the children's sex-education book It's Perfectly Normal, was honored as the year's most-challenged author. Calling librarians “the real heroes,” Harris observed, “You are on the front lines in your communities. I am only in front of my computer.”
Speaker Susan Isaacs, author of Red, White and Blue and other novels, also lauded the work of librarians, stating that that “anytime the freedom to read is curtailed, your liberty is threatened.” Issacs, another longtime battler against censorship, recalled once being asked when the fight to defend books would finally be over. Her reply: “Never—unless they win!”
Sachar, Azarian Win Newbery and Caldecott
Winners of the Newbery and Caldecott medals, considered the most prestigious achievement awards for children's literature, were announced at a February 1 press conference sponsored by ALA's Association for Library Service to Children.
Louis Sachar, author of Holes, won the 1999 Newbery Award for the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children. Published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 1998, the book tells the story of a boy who is convicted of a crime he didn't commit.
The Caldecott Medal for the most distinguished American picture book for children went to illustrator Mary Azarian for Snowflake Bentley, published by Houghton Mifflin. The book tells the story of Wilson Bentley, a boy who loved snow more than anything in the world.
One Newbery Honor Book was chosen: A Long Way from Chicago, by Richard Peck (Dial).
Caldecott Honor Book illustrators were Brian Pinkney for Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra, written by Andrea Davis Pinkney (Hyperion); David Shannon for No, David! (Scholastic); Uri Shulevitz for Snow (Farrar Straus Giroux); and Peter Sis for Tibet through the Red Box (Farrar Straus Giroux).
Also announced at the briefing were:
- Coretta Scott King Author Award: Angela Johnson, Heaven (Simon & Schuster).
- King Illustrator Award: Michelle Wood, i see the rhythm (Children's Book Press). a King Author Honor Book Awards: Nikki Grimes, Jazmin's Notebook (Dial); Joyce Hansen and Gary McGowan, Breaking Ground, Breaking Silence (Henry Holt); and Angela Johnson, The Other Side: Shorter Poems (Orchard).
- King Illustrator Honor Book Awards: Floyd Cooper, I Have Heard of a Land (HarperCollins); E. B. Lewis, The Bat Boy and His Violin (Simon & Schuster); and Brian Pinkney, Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and His Orchestra (Hyperion).
- School Library Journal/Young Adult Library Services Association's Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing books for teenagers: science-fiction writer Anne McCaffrey, author of the popular Dragonriders of Pern series.
- Mildred L. Batchelder Award for the most outstanding internationally published foreign-language book subsequently translated into English: Thanks to My Mother, written in Hebrew by Schoschana Rabinovici, edited by Cindi Kane, and translated by James Skofield.
- Andrew Carnegie Medal for excellence in children's video: The First Christmas, produced by Frank Moynihan and directed by Linsay van Blerk (Billy Budd Films).
- May Hill Arbuthnot Lecturer: Hazel Rochman, assistant editor of books for youth for Booklist.
At President's Program, Christmas Is State of Mind
“It makes me proud to be an Alaskan,” said ALA President Ann Symons of King Island Christmas: An Oratorio for the Stage. Her President's Program might better have been called a President's Production, presenting as it did 20 Broadway singers (five of them children) in a musical based on the children's book by Jean Rogers. The show tells the story of how a community on a remote Alaskan island pulls together to reach Father Carroll, whose ship cannot penetrate the island's frozen harbor.
“This musical is about intellectual freedom,” Symons laughed after the production, quoting from the libretto: “When trouble comes, you change your plans,” and, just as it does for librarians, she said, trouble offered the islanders “the chance to stick together.” Symons, who is a school librarian in Juneau, has chosen intellectual freedom as the theme of her presidential year.
Following the show, Symons, along with Rogers and her publisher Susan Hirschman of Greenwillow Books, composer David Friedman, and librettist Deborah Baley Brevoort, talked about the creation of King Island Christmas.
Brevoort said she grappled for five years with finding the right composer. Finally, she joked, a friend told her, “What you need is a good Jewish composer” and recommended Friedman. Within minutes of meeting him, Brevoort knew she'd found the right match.
King Island Christmas “is about how people work together to solve a common problem, “ said Friedman. He noted that he wanted to make the musical as accessible and universal as possible. “You'll notice that it never says Jesus, Christmas tree, or even God.” Yet the message of faith, hope, and love was clear. The audience loved it, gave the performers a standing ovation, and lined up outside the hall to buy autographed copies of the book. A free audiocassette of the show was presented to every attendee.
Update Focuses on Copyright and E-rate
“We thought that the people on the Hill were only looking at sex in the White House,” quipped Committee on Legislation Chair Nancy Kranich, opening the committee's Legislation and Policy Update. “But they're still looking at sex on the Internet, so we have another exciting year ahead of us.”
Refreshingly, however, that was virtually the only time censorship—or sex—appeared on the program, which focused largely on copyright issues and the e-rate. Attorney Arnold P. Lutzker, a consultant to ALA's Washington Office, provided an overview of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (AL, Nov. 1998, p. 16) designed to revise copyright law to address electronic issues and to make U.S. policy conform with international laws. Noting that a forthcoming regulatory proceeding will determine whether certain classes of materials should be exempt from the law's prohibition of devices to circumvent encryption and what exemptions should be made for fair use, Lutzker warned, “Your ability to make certain works available to broad classes of users is going to be at stake.”
The new law also updates library preservation procedures, said Washington Office Executive Director Carol Henderson. It increases the number of copies allowed for preservation purposes; makes clear that the copies can be in any format, including digital; allows preservation of materials that are in obsolete formats; and limits use of the preservation copies.
Interim Director Rick Weingarten described what ALA's Office for Information Technology Policy is doing in response to the new copyright law, including conducting a study on technological controls that will be used in the rulemaking process and providing information to the library community on what can and cannot be done under this “incredibly dense and complex” law.
A provision of the act that would have given copyright protection to databases even when the individual contents were not protected was dropped from the act but has been reintroduced. Adam Eisgrau, Legislative Counsel for the Washington Office, announced that a coalition is being formed to battle the measure, warning that “it will be a substantial legislative fight.”
The second half of the Legislative Update was devoted to the e-rate telecommunication discounts. K.G. Ouye, board chair of the Schools and Libraries Division, which administers the program, warned that the e-rate program has many enemies, from legislators hoping to derail it, to telecommunications companies that have filed suit to block it. However, she asserted, “We have the votes and the benefits of the program against their lobbying dollars.” Declaring that year one of the program was a success, Ouye said the current challenges are getting the award letters out quickly and increasing the demand from libraries in year two.
Kate Moore, chief executive officer of the SLD, admitted that the agency had a slow start in allocating funds to libraries, as opposed to schools. Fortunately, she said, libraries “gave us clear and direct feedback,” prompting the SLD to issue a special wave of commitment letters going solely to libraries. Moore announced year-two adjustments to make the application process easier, including the availability of electronic forms. She closed by urging librarians to keep the applications—and the feedback—coming.
Meeting Foreshadows Council Sessions
The semiannual joint Council/Executive-Board/Membership Information Meeting preceded the three sessions of ALA Council. Designed to give general members an opportunity to hear reports on key areas of Association business, the session, as it often does, became a prelude to the Council agenda, with reports from Budget Analysis and Review Committee Chair Mary Elizabeth Wendt, Senior Endowment Trustee Bernard Margolis, President Ann Symons, Vice-president/President-elect Sarah Long, Executive Director William Gordon, Nominating Committee chair Molly Raphael, and Committee on Legislation chair Nancy Kranich.
Both Wendt and Margolis reported good fiscal health for the Association. Margolis said “for the first time in our history, our endowment fund now exceeds $10 million”; but he added that the investment performance had been “disappointing” over the past year and that the trustees intended to broaden the number of managers. Councilor Gordon Conable pointed out that the investments were, in fact, 33% under target.
Symons reviewed some of the major initiatives of her presidential year and announced that Colin Powell would be the Opening General Session speaker at Annual Conference in New Orleans. During her report, councilors Michael Malinconico and Maurice Freedman told Symons they objected to her President's Program, King Island Christmas, because it singled out one religious denomination.
Councilor Mary Jane Anderson leaped to Symons's defense, saying that she was delighted that she'd “had the courage to do something different” and pointing out that diversity did not mean exclusion. Councilor Ruth Gordon concurred, calling the program “imaginative.”
Symons warned that members should expect “something different” in New Orleans as well, where the All-Conference Reception will be replaced with a scholarship reception-fundraiser with a $20 admission charge. The Local Arrangements Committee, she said, felt it would be impossible to raise the $50,000 to defray the cost of the usually free affair, and she and other organizers felt the need to raise money for scholarships was more pressing than the need to put on yet another food event.
Nancy Kranich emphasized the need for librarians to continue to apply for telecommunications discount rates. “Many people on the Hill are looking for a way to get rid of this program,” she warned, and “industry voices have fought hard against it.” But it is one of the biggest federal programs ever established to support libraries.
Assembly Involves Planning, Budget
“This is the one meeting that pulls together all parts of the Association,” said Budget Analysis and Review Committee chair Mary Elizabeth Wendt of the Planning and Budget Assembly. “It offers an opportunity to give input to the Executive Board in their planning role.”
Membership Committee chair Marianne Hartzell explained that the committee is looking for new ways to increase ALA membership. She identified membership drives for specific times of the year as the key to the 7% growth goal and said a joint program with state chapters is being given a three-year trial run. She said multiple-year memberships are also being considered.
ALA Treasurer Bruce Daniels said the Association is “continuing its strong financial performance,” showing a 6.1% increase in net assets, with conferences and publishing remaining solid.
ALA Information Technology and Telecommunication Services Director Sherri Vanyek and technical trainer Marilyn Namjestnik demonstrated the Association's new Integrated Management Information System, after which the group of some 40 people broke into smaller groups to discuss how the budget relates to ALA's stated priority areas: “diversity, 21st-century literacy, intellectual freedom, equity of access, and education and continuous learning.”
LC Proposes Reference Projects for a Digital Age
As a follow-up to an institute held last summer, the Library of Congress held an open discussion session on “Reference Service in a Digital Age,” focusing on the implications of the Internet for library reference work. Despite a conflict with the Super Bowl, the event was one of the best-attended sessions of Midwinter.
Linda Arret of LC's automated reference services described three proposed projects prompted by presentations and audience comments at the institute. The first was a Web site that will serve as a clearinghouse for digital reference efforts. Sunsite and other sites monitor digital resources, Arret explained; the proposed one would focus on reference, providing information on articles, conferences, organizations, discussion groups, research, library projects, and other relevant areas.
The second proposal, and the one that generated the most interest from the audience, was a collaborative, e-mail-based reference service with a goal of providing answers anytime, anywhere. Although this was viewed as a daunting undertaking, there was widespread agreement that such an effort was necessary. Roy Tennant of the University of California/Berkeley agreed that the proposal was “staggering,” but felt that “only something of this scope is going to get [users'] attention and give them the service they need.” Otherwise, he argued, libraries will lose customers to the Internet and become repositories only.
The third proposal was to pursue discussions about competencies for reference staff in a digital age. Arret observed that this idea paralleled concerns expressed in such venues as the Association for Library and Information Science Education conference and discussions surrounding ALA's forthcoming Congress on Professional Education.
Noting that these three proposals were simply the first ones LC came up with after last summer's institute, Arret said the library is open to other suggestions that might be pursued while the initial ones are being developed.
Group Tackles Needs of Disabled Students
Some of the most valuable activity at Midwinter occurs when scores of discussion groups devoted to specialized topics meet to grapple with real-world problems, often letting down their hair and exchanging ideas in a fashion that the more formal programs at Annual Conference wouldn't permit.
The Midwinter gathering of one such group, the Association of Specialized and Cooperative Library Agencies' Academic Librarians Assisting the Disabled Discussion Group, was even more intimate than most such meetings, numbering just eight people, but their conversation generated enough advice to fill a hotel ballroom.
Many disabled students' needs are simpler than specialized equipment or accessibility. Duke University's Margaret Brill noted that students with learning disabilities need a quiet area of the library to study. With nothing more than signs requesting compliance, Duke's area is “self-enforcing, but it's working.”
Rutgers' Françoise Premiller told of a vision-impaired student who required an area in the library with no fluorescent lighting. She noted that Kurzweil machines that read text aloud, which are generally used by vision-impaired people, are being used by learning-disabled students because they prefer learning aurally.
At the University of Pennsylvania, said Ancil George, “The problem hasn't been getting equipment; the problem is training.” Marilyn Borgendale seconded that observation; the University of Illinois/Chicago just got a new head of disabilities services, prompting an infusion of new hardware and software, but the library staff is grappling with learning to use it. In addition, she said, it's important to train staff in attitudes and customer service toward disabled users.
SRRT Offers Almost Banned Book Awards
The newly established Intellectual Freedom Discussion Group of the Social Responsibilities Round Table's Alternatives in Print Task Force announced its first “Almost Banned Book Awards.” The titles, all of them reviewed in volume 1 of the task force's journal Counterpoise (1997), were ranked by the least number of OCLC libraries holding them, as tabulated by Earl Lee at the Pittsburg (Kans.) State University library. Charles Willett, chair of the AIP Task Force, told AL that the awards demonstrate the failure of mainstream book selectors to choose alternative literature, even when it is reviewed favorably.
The bottom five titles are (with number of libraries owning):
- Suppression Stories, Fund for Intellectual Dissent, Wollongong, N.S.W., Australia (2).
- Afflict the Comfortable, Comfort the Afflicted: A Guide for Campus Alternative Journalists, Center for Campus Organizing, Cambridge, Massachusetts (6).
- Human Rights Handbook: A Practical Guide to Monitoring Human Rights, Human Rights Centre, Colchester, U.K. (6).
- 32 Stories: The Complete Optic Nerve Mini-comics, Garamond Press, Toronto, Ontario (8).
- How the EC and World Bank Policies Are Destroying Agriculture and the Environment: A European and Third World Perspective, AgBe Publishing, Alkmaar, Netherlands (16).
The AIP Task Force is setting up a jury to standardize the awards, and will consider 1998 titles at Annual Conference in New Orleans.
For a complete list of 1998 Almost Banned Books, contact Charles Willett, 1716 S.W. Williston Rd., Gainesville, FL 32608-4049.
E-Books the Topic at RMG Automation Forum
Ten executives of leading vendors of automated library systems met at the invitation of RMG Consultants to look at the potential impact of electronic books on libraries and the publishing industry. “Will E-Books Change the 'Game' for Libraries?” was the theme of RMG's ninth annual Presidents' Seminar.
Guest speaker David Gray, whose Numina Corporation offers downloadable college textbooks, explained that e-books—unlike traditional books—offer keyword-searchable content, the ability to make digital notes, audio and graphics files, and links to Web sites. Gray said e-books are time and space independent, they offer on-demand access, and they allow an unlimited number of users. He added that e-texts are more convenient than reserve books for student study schedules that often last until 3 a.m.
Forum moderator Rob McGee used a vigorous yet polite McLaughlin Group style to prod the panelists to prognosticate. Disagreement arose on how best to access e-books in the library: Jane Burke of Endeavor favored online public catalogs as gateways, while Carl Grant of Ex Libris thought libraries should provide e-book portals on the Web. Greg Hathorn of Sirsi conjectured that e-book availability might be worth investing in to bring students back to the library, commenting “You can't put a price on knowledge, but you can put a price on delivery of knowledge.”
Vinod Chachra of VTLS expressed some concern about longevity: “Books written in the 15th century are still in a proper format. Will e-books persist?” He suggested that research be conducted into the differences between writing postures and reading postures, as well as into screen reflectivity to avoid eyestrain.
Mark Needleman of DRA agreed: “To be successful in libraries, e-books must deliver more effectiveness than paper (which won't go away). For librarians, it's yet another medium that they have to deal with.” He said reference books, textbooks, and any materials where currency is paramount will fare better than fiction.
Gary Kirk of the Library Corporation mentioned the launch in March of a new Web-based service by Interactive Knowledge that will offer access to some 10,000 e-books. “Their software mimics library operations,” he said. “Only one copy can be used at a time, it provides complete usage statistics, . . . and the reader's copy turns itself off on the due date.”
From the audience, Brodart founder Arthur Brody recalled the day in 1941 when he was told “paperbacks are coming, get rid of all your hardbacks.” He called for a practical approach, asking “Will e-books revolutionize publishing? No, it will be quite a while before the book industry is impacted.”
Midwinter Registration Totals
|
Philadelphia 1999 |
New Orleans 1998 |
|
Regular Paid
|
| Advance |
4,660 |
4,482 |
| Paid On-Site |
1,390 |
1,327 |
| Total |
6,050 |
5,809 |
|
Exhibit-Only Passes
|
1,605 |
1,484 |
|
Other
|
| Exhibitors |
3,667 |
2,979 |
| Exhibitors Comp. Passes |
1,540 |
559 |
| Guests |
376 |
121 |
| Staff |
153 |
167 |
| Press |
142 |
138 |
| GRAND TOTAL |
13,533 |
11,257 |
Total paid is a new Midwinter record, surpassing the 1996 San Antonio total of 5,933. Registration revenue totals $532,500.
|
