[Web4lib] Christian Science Monitor editorial about Google Books project

[Chris Strauber]

For consideration: In what way is the proposed Google Books deal
different from the monopoly we've given to Proquest on dissertations
and theses? How about Early English Books Online? EEBO is actually a
better example, in that all the contents are long, long out of
copyright by definition. My comment is that we as a profession seem to
handle this sort of thing by letting a vendor do it, and then
subscribing. How is what Google is doing different? (I completely
agree with Brewster Kahle that this is something the Library of
Congress or libraries in concert could and should have done, but we
haven't).

I suspect it's partly the scale of what they're doing, but I also
suspect that there's some reflexive bias against Google.

Chris Strauber
Humanities Reference Librarian
Tufts University

On Sat, Aug 8, 2009 at 2:52 PM, B.G. Sloan<bgsloan2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> "Is Google playing by the book? The search giant is on its way to becoming the world's digital library, but a private monopoly raises questions." Christian Science Monitor Editorial Board, August 7, 2009.
>