There has been talk about this now for a couple of years.
Google has launched a program with a number of research libraries in the U.S. and the U.K. aimed at ultimately scanning all the books in their collections. The result of the multiple-year project would be an online digital library of what could number as many as 30 million volumes. The program will encompass books in and out of print, in copyright, and in the public domain—all available for full-text searching and, for the public domain items, full-image viewing. Participants in the program are the libraries of Harvard, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and Oxford University, as well as the New York Public Library (NYPL).
Information Today goes on to state Google’s primary goal aims at out-of-print material, whether public domain or in copyright. Google maintains that it is meeting library copyright standards. Participants will receive no financial compensation from Google, but the massive digitization project will also cost them nothing, according to involved librarians with whom I have spoken. Each library in the program will receive digital copies of the books it has contributed, which it can then use to enhance service to its own patrons.
The Library Boy reminds us there are two questions we may want to ask:
● for more and more people, if it’s not on Google, it does not exist and the fear is that Google will decide to digitize works that will allow it to sell ads. What isn’t digitized will disappear, at least from people’s awareness
● if Google should ever go bankrupt, to whom will humanity’s digitized heritage belong?
Related posts:
