Short, sourced records built to be checked and carried into a meeting.
Most patrons think the app is the library. It isn't. It's OverDrive, and OverDrive is owned by KKR, the same private-equity firm that owns Simon & Schuster. One owner, sitting on both sides of the deal. Disclosure: I worked at OverDrive from 2008 to 2011.
EbooksOwnershipVendors
KKR and Francisco Partners run most of the library-tech vendor stack. DC just passed a bill that would limit what they charge, unanimously. The trigger clause means it stays dormant until ten states join.
EbooksOwnership
Part of the Libby, ownership & ebook terms
The complete history of how library ebook access went from open promise (1971) to private equity monopoly (2026). Names the decisions, amounts, and what happens next.
EbooksOwnership
Part of the Libby, ownership & ebook terms
70+ sourced events tracing how library ebook access went from Project Gutenberg to a private-equity monopoly: OverDrive's rise, the publisher licensing wars, KKR's buyout, and Baker & Taylor's 2026 collapse.
Ebooks
Part of the Digital lending record
Two ways to gut a public library, the honest kind and the kind that calls itself efficiency. Libraries measure life events. Businesses count widgets. Here's what happens when you confuse the two, with receipts.
Ebooks
Part of the Digital lending record
Libraries shouldn't be run like businesses. But a library leader who can't read a budget or spot the corporate playbook loses the fight for library values to whoever in the room can. Take the discipline. Refuse the values.
Ebooks
Part of the Digital lending record
Seven years of library-worker reddit, read against 150 years of structural choices. The exit profile is a pattern, and the pattern has a history.
Ebooks
Part of the Digital lending record