Why (Code4) Libraries Exist

• Eric Hellman, President, Gluejar, Inc., eric@hellman.net

Code4Lib 2011, Thursday 10 February, 11:40 - 12:00

Libraries have historically delivered value to society by facilitating the sharing of books. The library "brand" is built around the building and exploitation of their collections. These collections have been acquired and owned. As ebook readers become the preferred consumption platform for books, libraries are beginning to come to terms with the fact that they don't own their digital collections, and can't share books as they'd like to. Yet libraries continue to be valuable in many ways. In this transitional period, only one thing can save libraries from irrelevance and dissipation: Code.