[Web4lib] Interesting article on Google Book Search

[K.G. Schneider]

As a meta-observation, not only do we not bash Google on Web4Lib, but at
times we seem to adulate this company and grant it extraordinary leeway and
leniency (as sometimes happens with Apple, whose "iTunes uber alles"
approach to DRM rarely gets a real sharp finger-wag, not to mention that
sacred e-cow, Wikipedia). When I mentioned last week that I trip over the
name of GBS, I received private email that that "Google made a good choice
and deserve to have that choice honored rather than ignored." The emotional
quality of the mail I received really startled me. If I refer to my favorite
drive-in restaurant as The Old In and Out, as I often do, would you really
care? Would you tell me that it made you angry? Frustrated? That it meant I
was "bashing" Google? 

I concur with this comment from if:book: "[Siva's] essay contains in
abundance what has largely been missing from the Google books debate:
intellectual courage. Vaidhyanathan, an intellectual property scholar and
'avowed open-source, open-access advocate,' easily could have gone the
predictable route of scolding the copyright conservatives and spreading the
Google gospel. But he manages to see the big picture beyond the intellectual
property concerns. This is not just about economics, it's about knowledge
and the public interest." 

I'm not anti-Google. I'm not anti-digitization. I do not join the global
battle to eradicate snippet-reading. I have my Blog People button. I use
Google Dead Tree already and can list its many positive benefits both
individually and perforce culturally. But it is worth asking what it means
to librarianship to sole-source and privatize all this content, even with
all the reassurances that Google Means Well. Even with the knowledge that
the public sector can't and won't do this (given we have much higher
national priorities such as starting wars on foreign soil and melting polar
ice caps), that doesn't mean we can't think critically about what this
project means and whether the arrangement is one that will be good for the
world in the long run. 

The cheap and easy response is sure, this is great. But I really heed this
comment: "I think the libraries are getting played badly here and they are
violating their own principles of openness and public service by letting
Google take charge and set the terms of this service." This only reflects
questions and comments I heard at the LITA Google talk at ALA, some of it
muttered sotto voce, some of it spoken into the microphone--questions and
comments I'm not sure really got answered. 

Karen G. Schneider
kgs at bluehighways.com