Wisconsin E-book Summit

"In the fall of 2009, the Chief Officers of State Library Agencies (COSLA) began an internal conversation about eBooks. What will they mean to the future of libraries, especially public libraries? Will these institutions be able to turn another digital format to its advantage, as they have with audiobooks? Or is it different this time? COSLA members wanted to arm themselves for action, instead of waiting to see how commercial forces would impact popular reading materials and the public library’s central role in providing them."

The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction has organized an E-book Summit in response to COSLA's study so that Wisconsin librarians will also be "armed for action."  The Summit will take place on May 4th, 2011, and 40 delegates from Wisconsin Libraries have been invited to take part in the day-long event.  The goal of the Summit is to develop best practices and protocol for the use of e-books in libraries, and the recommendations of the Summit will be published in a form Wisconsin librarians can use as e-book technology makes its way into their libraries.

SLIS will have a representative at the Summit, and we hope to make contacts and glean important information that may yield some guest speakers and fun, practical workshops for SLIS students for the Fall 2011 semester!

In the mean time, you are invited to read up on e-books and public libraries. Read COSLA's E-book study, and take a look at the Summit website, where you can contribute to the discussion under the "General Public Comments" tab!:
COSLA E-book Feasibility Study 
Wisconsin E-book Summit website