What we do have is a Blockbuster card and, between us, just enough cash to rent a newly released movie. Eight of us pile into the local Blockbuster and begin to scavenge the shelves. DVDs have yet to appear in our sleepy town, so we hold up chunky VHS boxes for appraisal.

"The English Patient?" "Rubbish."

"Trainspotting?" "Seen it."

"The Full Monty?" "My mum won't let me watch that."

"Titanic?" "Oooooh! Go on then!"

I took the empty carcass up to the desk. The incredibly worldly-wise 19 year old looked at us disdainfully. "Sorry mate, out of stock."

You see, hard as it may be to believe, the local Blockbuster franchise had underestimated the popularity of Titanic. They'd purchased a dozen copies to rent out. Once those walked out the door, that was it. We could ask them to ring us when a tape was returned - but we'd be at the bottom of a long waiting list.

So we leafed through a few display racks and went home with the kid's film about a genie, "Shazaam". It wasn't very good, as I recall.

If only Netflix were like that! Imagine if you tried to watch Stranger Things and were told that too many people were streaming the first episode. Netflix will notify you when there's a slot available. In the meantime, why not watch "Clarissa Explains It All"?

Wouldn't that be brilliant! Netflix could restrict demand, make things artificially scarce, and just generally make a worse user experience for everyone.

Wait... no... that'd be shit!

And yet, that's exactly how digital library books work in the UK!

Look, perhaps a Netflix for books wouldn't work; it's harder to read than it is to stick on TV in the background. But there's a healthy library scene in the UK. Authors get paid when people borrow their books. So why are libraries restricted to only loaning out a limited number of copies at once?

There's a part of me - a very small part - which can see the utility in this. If everyone could borrow the latest Dan Brown smash-hit all at once, would they ever explore any further? When you're told "Sorry, we don't have that - but you might like..." it could expand your reading horizons.

But that's a weak argument. With an endless supply of books, people can choose what they want to read, when they want to read it.

There is no digital scarcity. We need to rid the world of this analogue thinking.

Suppose you've reviewed lots of books. It's pretty easy to generate a link to let people buy the book at Amazon or any other online store. But how do you link to a user's local library?

You can't. There is no "search every library in the UK" service⁰. You can search the British Library, but they generally don't deliver to your local town centre.

Here's how to (almost) search local libraries for books.

eBooks

eBook behemoth OverDrive rules the roost when it comes to providing library services in the UK. As far as I can tell, they have the monopoly on eBook lending in UK libraries. That's a shame, because monopolies usual mean crap service. But it is also handy because you can use their service as a meta-search engine for local library books.

OverDrive's API is invite-only, but their search is pretty easy to manipulate. There's no way to search for an ISBN, but a title search will suffice:

https://www.overdrive.com/search?q=song+of+achilles

That goes to a page with eBooks and AudioBooks - as well as a few other close matches.

Selecting a book takes you to a page which shows which of your local libraries has the book available to borrow.

It isn't perfect. The "local" part seems to use GeoIP to guess where you are. Lots of eBooks aren't available on OverDrive. Oh, and it doesn't do legacy (paper) books.

But, it's better than nothing.

Paper Books

OK, suppose you're one of those old-fashioned fuddy-duddies who prefers dead tree format? How do you search for those relics in a local library? Enter WorldCat!

WorldCat is the world's largest network of library content and services. WorldCat libraries are dedicated to providing access to their resources on the Web, where most people start their search for information.

Again, their search URl is pretty easy to manipulate:

https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_bks&q=song+of+achilles

Quickly takes you to a list of books:

Visiting one of those links takes you to a list of local libraries - again, it guesses your locations:

But, sadly, most of those links are broken.

Some gave me errors, some redirected to the front page of the library website, some went in endless redirect loops. Not one single link took me directly to a page where I could borrow the book from my local library.

Now what?

I'm at a loss. The bottom of my review page looks like this:

I'd love to point that library link to WorldCat - but it is just too unreliable. So I'm sticking with OverDrive for now.

Anyway - read more books, and borrow them from your local library if you can. Libraries are brilliant.

As requested, I recorded all the sessions I could. Here are my notes, and the audio from each session I attended.

I've based some of the information from the excellent LibraryCampLondon Wiki, including the session proposal page.

Hidden Collections

Katie Birkwood lead a fascinating session. It turns out that there are hundreds of thousands of books hidden away in libraries. They're not in the records because of a lack of decent cataloguers. Which means people can't find them. Which means they're rarely used. Which means penny pinching bureaucrats want to "dispose" of them - homely or otherwise.

One suggestion I made was to use "negative metrics". Look at your search results - what common queries receive no results? Those are the books you need to prioritise for cataloguing.

Audio

Tweets

https://twitter.com/NazlinBhimani/status/307811824257077248

Chris B.

@libchris

crowdsourcing - how many have message on catalogue that invites contributions? (COPAC prominently says if an error let us know) #libcampldn

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Overdrive DRM is Broken (and that's ok)

I gave a demonstration on just how ridiculously easy it is to circumvent the ePub DRM system used by OverDrive - the system used for ebook lending in many libraries.

I used the metaphor of a locked box of doughnuts. I handed the box to a willing victim and told her that she may only unlock the box if she promised only to eat one doughnut and not to share any with her friends. I then gave her the key. Shortly afterwards the group had scoffed the lot! That's what makes DRM impossible; you give the lock and the key to the same person and expect them never to behave dishonourably.

I then facilitated a discussion around whether DRM was ever justified, whether libraries should boycott OverDrive, and if it was legal for a librarian to tell a patron how to circumvent artificial restrictions.

Audio

Tweets

I'm happy to say the session was generally well received.

shedsue

@shedsue

Most exciting session of the day IMO Hacking Overdrive #libcampldn NOW! With @edent

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LibraryCamp

@LibraryCamp

Replying to @edent@edent on hols with kindle. Ebooks in libraries. Prob 1) two weeks loan - why - this is a digital file! WTF #libcampldn #ebooks

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Lloyd Davis

@LloydDavis

Much anxious excitement in the group as @edent showed how straightforward DRM is to break on epubs #libcampldn

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Claire Back

@calire

eBook session one of the best I’ve been to at a Library Camp. @edent and not just because of the doughnuts. #LibCampLDN

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Facilitating the "Coming of Age" of Open Source Software in Libraries

Primarily this was a discussion about the Open Library Environment. An innovative foundation to open source many parts of the library environment.

We also discussed how to use other open source products - like FireFox on Internet connected PC.

Annoyingly, one of the participants asked for the session not to be recorded - which I have no problem with, but the guy didn't even speak during the discussion. What's that all about?

CodeClub

Greedily, I ran a second session after being asked to talk about my experiences teaching kids to code using Scratch.

I talked about the CodeClub.org.uk website and resource - telling the librarians how they could get involved.

I even showed off some of the Scratch games I had written. Hopefully it will encourage more libraries to run coding sessions for kids.

Audio

Comics

Try as I might, I just can't get in to graphic novels. I used to love the Beano as a kid, but most modern comics leave me cold.

It was, therefore, fascinating to hear about the rich tapestry of comics within libraries. How they're often used as gateways for reluctant readers. How inexperienced librarians often misfile them. And how explicit manga is not always suitable for young readers.

My resolution - to try to find at least one comic that I really enjoy. I've been recommended Maus (the story of the holocaust told from the perspective of some mice) and Kill Shakespeare (a frankly bonkers epic tale about all of Shakespeare's characters).

Audio

Overall

A really worthwhile and invigorating experience. Senate House Library is a delightful venue - although the layout of the rooms made the sessions a little noisy at times.

I enjoyed coming to an unconference which was so diverse, and had almost nothing to do with my day-to-day life. I'd recommend that every BarCamp attendee participates in an event which is totally outside of their normal life.