[Web4lib] Interesting article on Google Book Search

[Amos Lakos]

Some random quotes from this weird rant disguised as a reasonable think 
peace:

"The long-term risk of privatization is simple: Companies change and fail. 
Libraries and universities last. Should we entrust our heritage...."

"It also invites a collision of norms and rules unlike any we have seen in 
almost a century."

"I share another of my concerns"

"So I worry."

"We need services like that provided by Google Library. But they should be 
"Library" projects."

It seems that the author is all over the map with worry about Google 
especially as a sort of
dark private force that will destroy "libraries" or the need for libraries.

It seems that somehow, in the very short history of Google, it became the 
reason for much worry by many in the culture, music, advertising, etc 
sectors, and somehow the disruptive technologies Google (not alone) 
embodies, worry this author to no end. The demise of libraries is just one 
of his worries.

Much of the article - seems to me - is a list of the many areas that Google 
adds to Siva's long list of worries. Many of the relationships and 
conclusions are quite weak. He seems to imply that if Google would not do 
what it is doing, libraries for sure will and with assured attention to 
social equity, privacy, and other good things.

In any case - since he concludes that libraries and universities are 
ensured survival forever, why worry?

Amos

--On Wednesday, November 30, 2005 5:55 PM -0600 Leo Robert Klein 
<leo at leoklein.com> wrote:

> Sloan, Bernie wrote:
>
>> Siva also has posted a version on his blog:
>>
>> http://www.nyu.edu/classes/siva/archives/002445.html
>>
>> A brief excerpt:
>>
>> "This particular project, I fear, opens up more problems than it solves.
>> It will certainly fail to live up to its utopian promise. And it
>> dangerously elevates Google's role and responsibility as the steward -
>> with no accountability - of our information ecosystem. That's why I, an
>> avowed open-source, open-access advocate, have serious reservations
>> about it.
>>
>
> "It will certainly fail to live up to its utopian promise."
>
> Well, what doesn't fail to live up to its utopian promise?  You could say
> the same thing about most library mission statements.
>
> The one feeling I get when going through his article is how overwrought
> the argument is.  I mean, we have a deal between Google and five research
> libraries, inked just a couple of months ago, covering a smidgen of their
> collections, where they get to keep a copy of the digital record and use
> it as they see fit -- and the author sees this as "entrusting[ing] our
> heritage and collective knowledge" to Google possibly with centenarian
> consequences.
>
> That's pretty far-fetched.
>
> He even goes on to imply, towards the end of the piece that this success
> -- the success of Google -- might spell the end of libraries.  Should we
> assume then that if we can somehow do away with Google first -- you know,
> finish them off, that we'll be ensuring the longevity of our institutions?
>
> Again, it's hard to see the relation.
>
> LEO
>
> -- -------------
> Leo Robert Klein
> www.leoklein.com
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Amos Lakos
Librarian, Rosenfeld Management Library
UCLA - Anderson School of Management
110 Westwood Plaza, Box 951460
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1460
Phone: (310) 794-4381
Fax: (310) 825-4835
E-mail: aalakos at library.ucla.edu
Web: http://personal.anderson.ucla.edu/amos.lakos/index.html