2012 State of America's Library Report Shows Free Access to Information in Jeopardy
ALA releases Top Ten List of Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2011
CHICAGO, April 9, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Publishers limiting library ebook lending, budget cuts and book challenges are just a few library trends of the past year that are placing free access to information in jeopardy. These trends as well as other are detailed in the 2012 State of America's Libraries Report released today by the American Library Association (ALA) in conjunction with National Library Week (April 8 – 14).
The rapid growth of ebooks has stimulated increasing demand for them in libraries, but libraries only have limited access to ebooks because of restrictions placed on their use by publishers. Macmillan Publishing, Simon and Schuster and Hachette Book Group refused to sell ebooks to libraries. HarperCollins imposed an arbitrary 26 loans per ebook license, and Penguin