An issue that librarians are increasingly grappling with is DRM. It has been with us for many years (I remember floppy discs being copy-protected in the 80s) but recently technical protection measures have increased, impacting what and how we lend from libraries.

There’a lot of blogs looking at examples of DRM in libraries (for example check these search results for DRM on Liszen).

DRM is one of the barriers to access to information I’m researching for my Internet Studies class. One of the most critical aspects of DRM,to me, is that people who are not aware of their copyrights may not be aware of how their rights can be infringed by licenses and DRM. As someone who used to work with music licenses and Section 107 of the Copyright Act, explaining the restrictions on people’s work was often difficult.

Librarians have several roles in the DRM debate - to learn about the issues, purchase DRM-free where possible, negotiate with vendors, educate users and support association-level lobbying.

That announcements about the availability of DRM-free services, such as selected songs through iTunes and Radiohead’s new album, create headlines show there is a long way to go yet.

Speaking of Radiohead, are any libraries with music collections planning on acquiring their album before release in stores next March? And how? As more bands, authors, and artists release work without barcodes and CIP data and ISBNs, how do we as librarians change the way we develop our collections - in a practical sense - how do we buy this stuff?