EBook Champion

In her 12th year at Microsoft, Carmi Parker wondered, “If I were independently wealthy, what would I do?” The answer surprised her: She’d be a librarian. In 2016, she became an online experience coordinator for Whatcom County Library System, launching a career in which her two loves, books and tech, merged to meet a growing need.

Now Parker is a nationally recognized content specialist who has had significant impact in making digital content sustainable for libraries as restrictions on ebook and digital audiobook lending drastically affect library services.

In 2019, Macmillan Publishers said they’d sell only one copy of newly released titles to libraries during the first eight weeks of publication, claiming libraries were cannibalizing sales. Parker organized a national boycott, creating a toolkit including FAQs, talking points, and sample press releases. She sent weekly updates to aid the 1,200 libraries that joined the boycott. In March 2020, Macmillan ended the embargo.

Parker posits that if public libraries and publishers are to continue cultivating avid readers and creating careers for a diverse group of authors, digital content has to be as obtainable for libraries as print books are now.

“Carmi is a data wizard who believes in the power of well-researched, well-presented data to bring disparate parties together,” says Lisa Gresham, collection services manager of the Whatcom County Library System, where Parker is now the ILS administrator. “She is tenacious and single-minded in her pursuit of the truths data can reveal.”

“It was important for both publishers and libraries to feel libraries’ importance as a customer and community influencer,” Parker says. “The task now is to explore win-win scenarios to improve eLending for all parties.”