In the library lending vs. ebook publisher controversy, one thing that we keep forgetting to add into the equation is that we libraries have always provided the value added service of free marketing & reputation building. As we move ever further into the world of digital media, reputation becomes a key asset. We’ve never charged publishers for our free marketing and reputation-building services. Maybe we should.
If (or when?) public libraries shutdown due to an ebook revolution that cuts libraries out of the distribution loop, the big publishers will have no more ground force, nor will they continue getting reputation support for free. Without libraries, the publishers will end up paying more for social media/marketing services. Even so, their customers will know that these services are bought and paid for so they will have less impact than librarians currently do with their clear-eyed, unbought, but passionate advocacy for the publishers’ products.
Further, if the public -- who love their libraries -- learned that the publishers' unwillingness to sell ebooks to libraries for lending purposes had destroyed their libraries there would be no amount that those publishers could pay to erase the blot on their reputation (for at least a generation). If you think the idea of Microsoft as "an evil empire" held some sway and helped build a strong pro-Apple & open-source environment, imagine how strong the bias against the companies that "killed libraries" would be.
Though we librarians don't spend much money (since we don't have much in the first place) on marketing, polling, focus groups, and social media, we know that corporations do. Our services to them are an unpaid-for bargain that we haven't capitalized on yet. Since we've reached a crisis point, it's time that we cash in our chips.
Forbes magazine recently reported that the era of branding is over, that instead reputation is everything (see: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2011/12/16/the-era-of-brand-imperialism-is-over-long-live-the-reputation-economy/). So let's rethink our value in libraries and start demanding that publishers take better care of our future, just as we have always ensured theirs.
