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

[Jennifer A. Heise]

Hm.. This is interesting. This sounds very much like the first 
discussions of digitizing, 10 years ago. And the issues are still with 
us in commercial sites, and even, let's face it, in other libraries' 
collections-- what if the cost of storage is too high, or a trustee is 
offended, or our marketing-happy administrators decide to charge other 
libraries for access?  Is merely having copies of the printed material 
in the libraries available enough? What about the fact that the 
sponsoring libraries will have copies of the digital item?

How do we deal with the below concerns in approaching a for-pay resource 
like Lexis-Nexis Academic? When this first came out, our students 
insisted on using LN for everything, no matter how inappropriate. Now we 
have more balance. But when they get out into the big world, they 
(didn't) have access to Lexis-Nexis; now they can buy for-pay 
subscriptions to it.

Will the strategies we used to make people look beyond LN work for 
getting people to look beyond Google Scholar? Will the "Find in your 
Library" option bring students into our library resources that currently 
stop at a generic Google, MSN, or Yahoo search?

-- Jenne

>* 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
>
>
>  
>