While public libraries are often organised as a specific service within local or regional government, or at least linked to it, in reality they support delivery of priorities across the board. There are countless stories of library staff receiving questions related to other policy areas, such as health or access to justice. Similarly, many of […]
Read moreModern creative industries have, to a large extent, built themselves on the basis of copyright. Their business models depend on having – or acquiring – rights to sell or use content, which they can then sell in exchange for remuneration. These rights are what lies behind the need to pay for initial access to a […]
Read moreeBooks are often portrayed as being in conflict with physical books – the modern versus the traditional, function versus experience, and (more or less openly) Amazon versus bookstores and established publishers. Sales figures are regularly analysed for the relative trends. Partisans of physical books cite numbers from the big publishers, which tend to show […]
Read moreWhat does Open Culture mean for libraries, creators, and consumers? 2022’s UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies and Sustainable Development – MONDIACULT resulted in a declaration that affirmed culture as a global public good. This means States have recognised the benefit that culture can and should bring to all, and governments’ role in providing clear […]
Read moreKelsey Corlett-Rivera, the International Language Librarian at the U.S.’s National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS) at the Library of Congress (LC), has been participating in the practical implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty in the United States since she joined NLS in July 2020. Here she shares some lessons learned as NLS […]
Read moreA regular refrain in discussions about progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is that we still face major gaps in the evidence to support decision-making.
Read moreThis guest blog by Morten Olsen Haugen, Trøndelag County Library, Norway, offers an example of how libraries protect, preserve, and promote indigenous languages and the communities that use them.
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