[Web4lib] A Library to Last Forever - NY Times OpEd piece on GoogleBook Search

[Keith D. Engwall]

Music to my ears.  Count me in!

By the way, Harry G. Frankfurt wrote a tremendous and pertinent essay 
regarding this phenomenon entitled "On BS" (the title actually spells 
the term out... I'm just abbreviating it for the sake of public 
courtesy).  In it, he makes the distinction between lies, which are used 
to conceal the truth, and BS, which is wholly independent of the truth 
and is used simply to impress or persuade.  He makes the point that 
since the liar at the very least is concerned with the truth, and since 
the BS-er has absolutely no regard for the truth, it is BS that is the 
greater danger of the two.


-----Original Message-----
From: K.G. Schneider [mailto:kgs at bluehighways.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 7:31 AM
To: web4lib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Web4lib] A Library to Last Forever - NY Times OpEd piece 
on GoogleBook Search

> The grizzled man with the fedora is a great image, but Mr. Brin does 
in
> fact have a point about people needing to travel. Every day people 
walk
> into our special collections library after travelling across the 
country
> or across an ocean. The tomes are not long lost, the folks in the 
Small
> Library know just where to find them, but some of the patrons are 
grizzled
> and there's the occasional fedora. Whips I haven't seen, I don't know 
if
> we have a policy on that.

This is absolutely true, but it doesn't negate my original point, which 
is
of an "editorial" (read: advertisement) that invoked a sense of urgency
through a flawed example. The New York Times was displaying the same
overweening deference I've seen from libraries that rushed into 
agreements
that may have given Google far more hegemonic omnipotence than is
appropriate for books that are or will be a public good. 

As a (non-STM) author, I'm well aware that long-term, my works are 
better
off in the Commons. What I am objecting to, as both librarian and 
author, is
how boldly Brin made an argument that wasn't even factually correct to
defend the construction of a for-profit monopoly by a company known for 
its
secretive and proprietary ways, and how long a leash he is granted by 
the
mainstream media and its consumers. I am willing to be labeled as un-hip 
and
un-cool for questioning our complacency with this arrangement. 

Karen G. Schneider



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