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July 10, 2008
Google, Librarians, and a whole lotta nothing
So, I just logged in to Google Reader to, you know, catch up on the internets, and I came across one, two, three interesting (and semi-heated) librarian posts about the Google/Library relationship (or digitizationship?). All this talk seems to have come about because Google didn't display at ALA and hasn't updated their Google Librarian blog in a year.
From Library Stuff:
So, Google will continue to use librarians, scan their books, profit from it, and then leave us in the information dust to rot like an old microfilm machine.It’s sad really. But then again, we fell for it. Well, not me. I know when I’m being used. Do you?
From Walt Crawford in the Library Stuff comments:
I’ll have to disagree, at least in part. The University of Michigan wasn’t used. I don’t believe any of the libraries that are part of the Google Library Project were (or are) used. .... More access to public domain books. Full-text searching for books that only libraries can provide. How exactly does this “leave us in the information dust”?
From Information Wants to be Free:
So, there are all these libraries with awesome collections that aren’t being digitized. Google comes in and says “hey, we’ll digitize your books for free and let you have the digital copies for your students.” Google was not doing this for the good of those libraries; they were doing it for the good of Google. But clearly the Universities also saw how this project was in their best interests or their lawyers wouldn’t have signed off on it. These Universities now have tons of their books in digital format that students, faculty and staff can enjoy from anywhere. University of Michigan makes them available in their catalog. It’s awesome. Maybe I’m naive, but none of this really gets me up in arms.
Posted by markmac at July 10, 2008 09:36 PM
Comments
What can I say? I read and pulled out the very same blog, Markmac. Great minds!!
Posted by: schnitzr at July 11, 2008 02:21 PM
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