[Web4lib] Interesting article on Google Book Search

[Leo Robert Klein]

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