Publishing

Libraries and publishing houses sometimes line up against eachother because we want to offer things free, or as cheaply as possible, while they need to meet publishing costs in order to survive and pay everyone involved, including writers. The video above from Techcrunch shows a new initiative called Cursor by the publisher, Richard Eoin Nash which aims to change the role of publishers. He also answers some of the questioins that could be (and often are, to our chagrin) levelled at library staff and librarians such as "what do you actually do??", or "cant people find their own stuff these days?", implying that with the advent and spread of technologies intermediaries are no longer needed. The same problem in a different light was discussed on The View during the week - the role of critics and whether or not we need them anymore, as mentioned by this 23things post. Lots of professions seem to be subject to this kind of questionning!
Have a look and see what you think.