Role of librarians

[P. Michael McCulley]

On Sun, 15 Oct 1995, Karl Beiser wrote:

[quoting earlier poster]
> > "Do the arithmetic for the Santa Monica Public Library... Thirty of
> > Toshiba's PC-based optical character recognition products, which parse the
> > page and can recognize fine text and identify columns, could put the entire
> > Santa Monica Library on-line in less than a year and a half."
> > 
> > My argument that was even if you did that, it would't be useful without a
> > great deal more work to organize the digitized information so that it would
> > be useful; Alan argued that the only obstacle was the lack of a willingness
> > to spend money to digitize the books.
> 
> Absolutely. 
> 
> But Kay's reported suggestion totally ignores the most fundamental 
> obstacle -- copyright.  Most of the really interesting stuff in the 
> Santa Monica library represents physical instances of intellectual 
> property owned by a multitude of publishers and authors -- very few 
> of whom have heretofore come forward offering gratis permission to 
> make their work available in electronic form.  If the question is 
> money, then the technology constitutes the smaller part of the 
> invoice.  Purchasing rights will be far more expensive.
> 
> I've seen arguments that postulate the nationalization of publishing, 
> the total reconstitution of society, and similar remedies several 
> light years out from reality, but not much else.   I think we are 
> likely to see widespread availability of popular periodicals on a 
> microcharge basis, and with less certainty some degree of 
> availability of non-fiction on a pay-to-download approach, before the 
> conundrum of clearing the copyright hurdle.
> 
> Just MHO...
> 
>  
> Karl Beiser                         Maine State Library
> beiser at saturn.caps.maine.edu        POB 2145 Bangor, ME 04402 

Karl and others,

	There are various initiatives discussing and working toward some 
type of national digital library. As you noted, the key concerns and 
issues do involve copyright, but funding, digital archiving and systems, 
scanning, rights and permissions are a part of the thorny equation as well.

	Various digital collections are likely to emerge from places like 
LC (see below), perhaps academic and special libraries; indeed, special 
collections within any type of library may be candidates for such 
programs and efforts. If these are linked to the Internet, perhaps 
Web-based, then collectively they are the core of a national digital 
library. The technology exists, but the funding, leadership, and will 
must come from individuals in communities who want to make this happen; 
local implementations, then regional collections/links, and national to 
international. One brave new digital world can emerge.

	A prototype program is the American Memory efforts at the Library 
of Congress; see some of their technical papers at URL: 
		http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ftpfiles.html
and a link here back to their home page.

	Here's a snapshot of the page:

   Image: American Memory Logo
   
   Historical Collections for the National Digital Library
     _________________________________________________________________
   
  Current Collections
   
     * Select from a list of titles and topics
     * Select by type of collection
     _________________________________________________________________
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   American Memory consists of collections of primary source and archival
   material relating to American culture and history. These historical
   collections are the Library of Congress's key contribution to the
   national digital library. Most of these offerings are from the
   unparalleled special collections of the Library of Congress.
   
   The elements in each historical collection include digital
   reproductions of items, a finding aid, and various accompaniments. The
   finding aid may consist of a catalog (a database of bibliographic
   records) or take the form of a register (a hierachical listing or
   directory).
   
   At this time, three photographic collections, one recorded sound
   collection, one manuscript collection (under construction) and a trio
   of early motion picture collections have been prepared for Internet
   access. Access to a number of additional collections will be provided
   in the coming months.
   
   Note: some materials may be protected by copyright in the United
   States or other nations, or by restrictions from donors.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Technical Papers and Other Information about American Memory
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Future Collections -- collections planned for Internet presentation
   during 1995-1996
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Send us comments on this server via our Mail Gateway.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Usage Statistics for this Server.
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Return to the Library of Congress Home Page.


Best,
Michael

P. Michael McCulley // mcculley at netcom.com
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