[Web4lib] A Delicious Future for Libraries?

[Michael McCulley]

Maurice brings a voice of reason, and insight, to the discussion.

There's nothing inherently non-Western about their approach, that I can see.
And, lest we forget, there are plans for international versions of similar
scope or scale, from EU and perhaps other "Google Prints." I don't think
there's anything inherently politically incorrect about their mission; you
can read it here:
http://www.google.com/corporate/
 
"Company Overview
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it
universally accessible and useful."
 
My biggest concern would be the same one I've expressed for several years
now; why don't our library associations have a continuing and frequent and
"standing" liaison with Google? There's no good reason I can see not to
bridge the divide, if there is one, have the open dialog between Google and
librarians in a "birds of a feather" sense, and see what comes of it. We
likely will lose from the lack, and we stand to gain solid professional
input into the information systems and applications of a major "information
provider." 

As a whole, on both sides of the clouds of Google Print (publishers *and*
libraries), I am neither rose-colored amazed, nor bashing what's a beta
project that involves a major new dot.com with deep pockets, and re:mission
above, and so far, involving several large, prestitious universities with
large, deep libraries. It's like being present at a grand experiment, and I
just hope we don't stand too long on the sidelines.

Best,
DrWeb

-- 
P. Michael McCulley aka DrWeb
mailto:drweb at san.rr.com
San Diego, CA 
http://drweb.typepad.com/

Quote of the Moment:
 Terminal glare: A look that kills...
Thursday, November 03, 2005 5:56:43 PM 
 
>-----Original Message-----
>From: web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org 
>[mailto:web4lib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Maurice York
>Sent: Thursday, November 03, 2005 2:35 PM
>To: web4lib at webjunction.org
>Subject: Re: [Web4lib] A Delicious Future for Libraries?
>
>Rose-colored glasses are undesirable in any context. By the same
>token, perhaps we can forego the uniformly cynical and combative
>stance towards this undertaking by Google and the five libraries, and
>find a more moderate and balanced center for discussion. The language
>of "us versus them" is at least as counterproductive as the uncritical
>praise.
>
>To speak specifically to the "anglophone bent", we should not be so
>derisive to the collection policies of Michigan, Stanford, et al as to
>imagine that they have only collected books from Western countries
>over the last several centuries. A significant portion of their
>holdings are in non-Western languages and scripts, and they will be
>scanned along with everything else. Now, granted, some search tools
>for indexing and retrieving non-Roman characters and scripts would be
>immensely valuable and important.
>
>-Maurice
>
>--
>************************************
>Maurice York
>Team Leader, Circulation and Reserves
>Woodruff Library
>Emory University
>Atlanta, GA 30322
>mcyork at emory.edu