Book News Roundup: Seattle Public Library wins big, King County Library speaks out against ebook price-fixing, Seattle has a new Civic Poet, by Paul Constant

Published by Paul Constant

Seattle voted to approve the Library Levy in a landslide! You'll start to see benefits from the levy, including longer hours at local branches and no more late fees, starting next year. Thanks to the nearly 75 percent of you voters who made this possible. SPL Executive Director and Chief Librarian Marcellus Turner published a thank you note on SPL's site.
In other library news, King County Library System Executive Director Lisa Rosenblum published an essay at Geekwire calling out Macmillan's ludicrous plan to limit library access to ebooks.
Macmillan Publishers, one of five major publishers in the United States, recently announced a new lending model that limits public libraries to only one copy of newly-released titles in digital formats, followed by an eight-week embargo on purchasing additional copies. For the King County Library System, with 50 libraries serving more than 1 million residents, the announcement is especially troubling.
Jourdan Keith was announced as Seattle's latest Civic Poet yesterday. Her first appearance in the role — which serves as a cross between Poet Laureate and goodwill ambassador for the literary arts — will be at the Mayor's Arts Awards on August 29th. We hope to publish an interview with Keith here on the Seattle Review of Books soon.