[WEB4LIB] Re: Google Print as the library's mission

[K.G. Schneider]

> And guaranteed longevity.  Google ultimately provides a service only as
> long as their investors can be convinced that it's in their interest.
> Get your users hooked on it today, and there's no solid promise that it
> will be there tomorrow.

I think I am starting to get some language to map to my concerns. Call it
the WalMart syndrome. I'm concerned not only that Google could decide, down
the road, that preservation of the written record just isn't their bag, man,
but also that Google could decide it is very much worth their while to be
not merely the premier but the only database provider, and get to that point
by squeezing out other competitors (the database equivalent of the local
hardware store) until we live in a Google/Froogle/Schoogle universe. 

This could mean: 

* Information unavailable due to cost decisions that it's not worth
archiving (like BevMo not carrying tiny local wines, to use a California
example). 

* Information unavailable because Google believes its investors would be
upset if they made it available (fill in any example of edgy information)

* Content that IS available that we as librarians wouldn't offer (like
Google's notorious ads for paper mills; why they need advertising from paper
mills is beyond me, unless it fuels projects such as Schoogle)

* Information we can't afford because in a noncompetitive environment Google
can jack up the prices or arrange the licensing or the technical
availability to benefit the single licensor more than the organizational
licensor (support proxies? Why bother?)

Just some googly thoughts. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com