Sam Chada

findings on the library industry, with the sources behind them

Coming soon

  • Who actually owns the app most patrons think is the library.
  • Where a library's ebook dollar goes, one line at a time.
  • Why small-press books rarely make it onto library shelves.
  • Fifty-five years of digital content in libraries, 1971 to now.
  • A look at the AI vendors now selling into school libraries.
  • What OverDrive's new publisher product is built from.
  • What library leaders give up by not knowing how a budget reads.
  • What happens when a library gets measured like a business.
  • Who owns the library technology stack, and the pricing bill DC just passed.
  • Why library workers leave, read against the history of the job.
  • Why curation, not AI, is the part of the job that can't be automated.
  • Why the ebook you borrowed disappears, explained properly.
  • Building an open-source MARC cataloger, and why it was needed.
  • Libby and Hoopla for staff: cost models, control, contract terms.
  • Why I'm building a library system instead of waiting for one.