Boston Public Library – Media Nation

A new partnership expands free digital access to The Boston Globe at more than 40 libraries

*The Cambridge Public Library is part of the Minuteman Library Network, which is now offering digital access to The Boston Globe. Public domain photo circa 1889 via Wikimedia Commons.*

Probably the single most frequent complaint I hear about The Boston Globe is that it’s too expensive. A non-discounted digital-only subscription costs $36 a month, and the paper doesn’t make any gift links available for sharing on social media.

Perhaps that’s changing. Last fall, the Globe unveiled a flexible paywall for its Boston.com satellite site. Subscribers can give away some free shares every month. Boston.com had previously been entirely free, but it does give the tech folks a chance to experiment before deciding whether to introduce the same feature at the Globe itself.

And now the Globe is adding free digital access to anyone with a library card in the Minuteman Library Network, which comprises more than 40 libraries in the Boston area. It already has a similar arrangement with the Boston Public Library. Five hundred users will be allowed to log in simultaneously for a maximum of 72 hours. Is that enough? I don’t know, but it’s a step in the right direction. I’d also like to see some provision for out-of-state readers who might need to access a few Globe stories each year.

Here’s the full press release, which I grabbed from the trade website Editor & Publisher:

The Boston Globe and Minuteman Library Network recently announced a partnership providing their cardholders with access to Boston Globe digital content. This new collaboration continues The Boston Globe’s work with library systems across Massachusetts, bolstering its mission to provide access to award-winning local journalism and high-quality news and information.

Through this partnership, Minuteman cardholders can sign up for a 72-hour digital pass to Globe.com, accessing Boston Globe journalism, puzzles and games, podcasts, videos, Globe Magazine and more. A maximum of 500 passes are available on a first come first serve basis, allowing cardholders from across more than 40 member libraries to access Boston Globe content and the Globe E-Paper, as well as an archive of articles extending back through The Boston Globe’s 153-year history.

Just last year, The Boston Globe announced an expanded partnership with Boston Public Library. With the Globe’s collaboration with Minuteman, Metrowest communities outside Boston, including Westwood, Natick, Cambridge and Newton, will be able to offer free access to The Boston Globe to library members.

“At Boston Globe Media, we are always exploring new ways to deepen our connection with the communities we serve in Massachusetts,” said Michelle Micone, chief marketing and strategic initiatives officer, Boston Globe Media. “Partnering with invaluable institutions like the Minuteman Library Network allows us to expand access to our trusted journalism and ensure more people can engage with the news and information that matter most.”

“The libraries of the Minuteman Library Network are eager to secure access for their cardholders to the Boston Globe’s in-depth reporting in an online platform that renders the full reading experience of the print editions,” said Phil McNulty, executive director, Minuteman Library Network.

Clarification: I’ve updated this item to note that though the Globe doesn’t make gift links available on social media, it does allow subscribers to send a full copy of an article to a non-subscriber via email — which I wrote about a few months ago.

Politics and the BPL (II)

Fired Boston Public Library president Bernard Margolis goes after Mayor Tom Menino in today’s lead story in the Boston Globe. And Margolis’ comments are in perfect accord with this week’s Boston Phoenix editorial, which I flagged last Friday.

According to Margolis, the mayor had actually rebuffed his efforts to strengthen the branch libraries — a shortcoming supposedly responsible for Margolis’ ouster — and then turned around and used that as an excuse to get rid of him.

Globe reporter Donovan Slack’s story includes this:

Margolis said he knew in May that his contract would not be renewed, when [Menino chief of staff Judith] Kurland visited him at the library. After taking a tour and perusing 17th-century documents from the Bay Colony, she delivered the news.

“She said, ‘I want to tell you that your contract will not be renewed when it’s up next year,’ ” Margolis said. “She said, ‘If the trustees don’t go along with it, they will be removed.’ “

Kurland confirmed that she had told Margolis his contract would not be renewed, but she denied that she had talked to him about replacing trustees not willing to go along. “What I said was, ‘We do have the votes not to reappoint, if you want us to take a vote on it,’ ” Kurland said.

The only way Menino can make amends for this stunning exercise in political bullying is to bring in a first-class replacement for Margolis. We’ll see.

Politics and the BPL

So what is the real reason that Bernard Margolis is being forced out of his job as president of the Boston Public Library? To read the Boston Globe’s coverage, you’d think Margolis had all but ignored the neighborhood branches over the past 10 years. A Globe editorial endorses that view.

But a Boston Phoenix editorial this week places the blame squarely on Mayor Tom Menino, who reportedly has never liked Margolis, and who has decided to indulge his penchant for stacking his administration with loyalists rather than put up with an independent-thinking visionary.

According to the Phoenix, three BPL trustees held Menino off from acting on his worst instincts over the years — former Globe publisher William Taylor, former Massachusetts Senate and UMass president Bill Bulger and state Rep. Angelo Scaccia. But Taylor is no longer a trustee, Bulger and Scaccia have lost clout, and Menino is now free to do what he pleases.

Here’s the heart of the editorial:

Now that Margolis’s firing is about to be made official, the city is being treated to a campaign of disinformation suggesting that, while Margolis was good for the historic central library in Copley Square, his track record in the branches was lacking. This is rubbish, so out of line with reality that it approaches a big-lie strategy: tell a whopper with enough conviction and frequency and you can get the public to believe it. It will probably work. Also wrested out of context are recycled versions of Margolis’s unwillingness to install Internet filters — except for children — on library computers. Free speech may be uncomfortable at times, but it should never be so in a library.

I covered the filter controversy for the Phoenix back in 1997, shortly after Margolis had arrived, and I was impressed with his sophisticated, sensitive approach. He easily could have sided with Menino and engaged in out-and-out censorship, or taken an absolutist free-speech view and refused to install any filters. Instead, he found intelligent middle ground.

Ten years is a long time to run a major cultural institution such as the BPL. If the trustees replace Margolis with someone of equal stature, but perhaps with a different set of priorities, then no harm will have been done except the damage that’s already been unfairly visited upon Margolis’ reputation.

But the Phoenix editorial makes a convincing case that Margolis is being let go for all the wrong reasons. Those of us who love libraries ought to be concerned.