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

[Grace J. Agnew]

Karen,

I wouldn't disagree that the library world is not always collaborative.  
In the case of preservation, I think our failure to move forward 
rapidly  is less an issue of competition than an issue that no one 
really knows what it will require to make digital resources we create 
today available 10 years from now, much less 50-200.  There are so many 
variables--format of the resource, user applications, technical 
platforms.  Nobody expects the web itself to be around in its current 
form in 10-20 years, for example, so how do we "future proof" web-based 
resources?  I think we are making a start by trying to develop some 
standard metadata data elements and schemas that at least describe what 
we have done, as a first step that will hopefully be somewhat "future 
proof."  Google seems both collaboration averse and metadata averse.  I 
think they are brilliant in their efforts to be intuitive and user 
friendly, but I don't have a sense that they share the commitment of the 
library and museum world to longevity or to future uses of information 
that might outlast the existence of Google itself.  After all, libraries 
and museums to date generally have had a longevity that few corporations 
can count upon.  Our business models generally incorporate longevity.  
Most corporations do not.  Once a corporation goes public, their 
ultimate audience is generally the shareholder, not future generations 
of users.

Grace

K.G. Schneider 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. 
>>    
>>
>
>Grace's point is good, and I Am Not Defending Google. But my question would
>be how much HAS the library world collaborated, how quickly, and with what
>results. To what extent is Google Print the outcome of inaction from a
>profession which can be more competitive than collaborative, and which moves
>with all the deliberate speed of a glacier?
>
>  
>
>>I wonder where
>>Google sees itself in terms of collaborative preservation?
>>    
>>
>
>Google sees itself as the answer, but we are in part--maybe a very large
>part--responsible for that state of affairs.
>
>Karen G. Schneider
>kgs at bluehighways.com
>
>
>
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>Web4lib at webjunction.org
>http://lists.webjunction.org/web4lib/
>  
>

-- 

____________________________________________________________

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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