The news this a.m. that Amazon now provides shelf ready services for libraries is somewhat startling. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising because libraries have made good use of Amazon for many years. Below is something I wrote to accompany this announcement when posting to the class blog for the class I’ve been teaching this summer:
This news item follows an announcement late yesterday from a library vendor, TLC, about an agreement with Amazon to provide pretty much the same thing: shelf ready material. As you know from a few of the readings assigned for the course, library vendors such as Yankee Book Peddler and Blackwell have been providing this kind of service for a number of years. One has to wonder how this might affect their business.
I find this development apropos to come at this time and at the end of this course. It clearly shows the magnitude of constant change faced by those working in technical services in libraries.
