[Web4lib] RE: Re: RE: More on the Open Content Alliance

[Richard Wiggins]

Indeed, someone in the audience during a panel discussion on Google
Print at the recent Internet Librarian conference raised a related
concern:  What happens when libraries participating in the project
begin to feel shelf space pressures?   I asked if he was concerned a
la NIcholson Baker w/r/t libraries shedding newspaper collections
after they are microfilmed or digitized.  He said that was exactly his
concern.

Another attendee told me that Oxford has concluded that the level of
quality if the Google digitization process is not sufficient to meet
their standards for preservation.  He also said that Oxford will use a
manual page turning process for their scanning, implying that the
other participants will use a robotic device to turn the pages. 
Finally, he said that Oxford will do the scanning in a facility
separate from the Bodleian Library, and they will set up a workflow
process that allows a book to be pulled from the assembly line if a
patron happens to request it, with the work to be re-queued for later
scanning.

/rich

On 11/1/05, Grace J. Agnew <gagnew at rci.rutgers.edu> wrote:
> Also, the sharing of information about the digitization process is also
> important for collaborative preservation--particularly to
> collaboratively address digital format obsolescence, etc.  When the
> library world collaborates to set digitization standards, our intent is
> to insure usability for future generations, through transcoding,
> encapsulating, etc. as formats and technologies change.  I wonder where
> Google sees itself in terms of collaborative preservation?
>
> Grace Agnew
>
> Roy Tennant wrote:
>
> > Not to belabor this, but a final clarification of my intent since I
> > phrased it poorly. Perry is correct, that to see the public domain
> > material from the University of Michigan we won't need to go through
> > Google. But I was trying to speak more about Google's intent. If
> > Google truly wanted only the public good, then there would be no
> > reason to be secretive -- in fact there would be some very good
> > reasons to be completely open about how they are accomplishing this
> > technical feat. But Google wants content to get eyeballs, and
> > therefore more advertising revenue. Therefore, they have little or no
> > interest in making information about how they are doing things
> > available to the rest of us. This has nothing to do with the
> > University of Michigan, but it has a great deal to do with Google.
> > Roy
> >
> > On Oct 28, 2005, at 11:49 AM, Perry Willett wrote:
> >
> >> And to respond to Mark's comments: they're not Google's
> >> scanned books, they're ours. These are our collections, and
> >> we take curatorial responsibility for both the print and
> >> digital versions. If people want to use Google Print,
> >> that's fine. Roy's point was that he thought that people
> >> would be forced to use Google to see these books, and
> >> that's just not true.
> >>
> >> Perry
> >>
> >> Perry Willett
> >> Head, Digital Library Production Service
> >> 300 Hatcher North
> >> University of Michigan
> >> Ann Arbor MI 48109-1205
> >> Ph: 734-764-8074
> >> Fax: 734-647-6897
> >> Email: pwillett at umich.edu
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>> Perry,
> >>>
> >>> Being the devil's advocate here: why would I go to the U.
> >>> Michigan website to look for Google's scanned books when
> >>> I could go to Google's website and get the "internet" as
> >>> well as scanned in books from other universities? It
> >>> might be useful for U. Michigan faculty staff and students
> >>> to search the scanned books from U. Michigan but not the
> >>> rest of the world.
> >>>
> >>> - Mark
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >>
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> >>
> >>
> >
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>
> --
>
> ____________________________________________________________
>
> Grace Agnew
> Associate University Librarian for Digital Library Systems
> Rutgers University Libraries
> 47 Davidson Road Piscataway, NJ 08854
> 732/445-5908
> gagnew at rci.rutgers.edu
>
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