Against the Grain V34#5

By the time you’re reading this, the 2022 Charleston Conference will be upon us!  We’re excited to welcome everyone to Charleston whether it’s your first time attending or your 42nd!  My fingers are crossed for a wonderful experience, no technical glitches, great attendance, and good weather for all of us.  The weather is especially important — I remember one year when it POURED rain all week and we had our conference reception planned for an outdoor courtyard space at the new College of Charleston School of Science and Mathematics building.  We had tents and heaters galore, and the rain didn’t dampen our spirits at the party, but it did cause short term panic for our catering company who had to source the tents and heaters at the last minute! 

Hip-hip-hooray for our guest editors for this issue, Meg White (Director of Vendor Partnerships, Charleston Hub) and Todd Carpenter (Executive Director, NISO).  They presented a session called “Controlled Digital Lending Is Just Lending, But It Needs Standards Too” at the 2021 Charleston Conference, and we invited them to give an update on the topic for this issue of Against the Grain.  We’re thrilled to have articles from both Meg and Todd as well as Lila Bailey, Senior Policy Counsel at the Internet Archive.

We have an Op Ed submission from Daniel Huang of Lehigh University with a call to update the Charlotte Initiative’s principles of eBook acquisition.  He gives us a charge to “leave the docks!” with a proposal for how librarians and publishers can move forward together.  We also have two dynamite interviews with Allison Belan (Duke University Press) and Richard Gallagher (Annual Reviews).  And if you’re attending the conference in person, don’t miss the ATG Food + Beverage Round Up from Nicole Ameduri (Springer Nature) where she lists her top picks for Charleston restaurants.  Last, but never least, our Back Talk this go-round talks about fond childhood memories of the public library from the inimitable Ann Okerson. 

Come say hello if you’re in Charleston, and my very best wishes for a great conference for all!

Love, Yr.Ed.