Publisher Sues University Librarian Over His Personal Blog Posts

McGruber writes "The Chronicle of Higher Education has the news that Herbert Richardson, founder of Edwin Mellen Press is suing McMaster University and University Librarian Dale Askey for $3 Million over Mr. Askey's posts on a personal blog. In 2010 Mr. Askey wrote a blog post about Edwin Mellen Press on his personal Web site, Bibliobrary. Mr. Askey referred to the publisher as 'dubious' and said its books were often works of 'second-class scholarship.' For a few months afterward, several people chimed in in the blog's comments section, some agreeing with Mr. Askey, others arguing in support of the publisher. In a February 11 statement, the McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) stated that The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) 'and the MUFA Executive agree that this case represents a serious threat to the freedom of academic librarians (pdf) to voice their professional judgement and to academic freedom more generally.'"

McMaster is probably right

[Murdoch5]

Most textbooks are second, third or ass wipe class resources. Out of the 14+ textbooks I have, and out of the 100 I've read, maybe 2 of them are worth any money and out of those two, only the embedded software textbook is worth over $20. Textbooks are by far the worst way to learn / educate a student! Instead of suing the blogger maybe textbook publishers should sit back and finally ask "How do make a learning resource that works!", One thing is for sure it's not following the current methods.