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Lecture prepared & recorded for LIS 520: Information Resources, Services, and Collections (distance MLIS program, Information School, University of Washington, Winter 2010). T
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The Google Books Library ProjectPersonal Experiences, Public Perspectives, and Issues Relevant to Libraries
Elisabeth Jones LIS 520, Winter 2010
Outline
The 50¢ tour of Google Book
My experiences with the project
A Spectrum of Perspectives
What’s in it for libraries? What’s not?
The Proposed Settlement
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Two projects, really
Publisher project
Library project
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Publisher project
Contracts with publishers to host in-copyright, mostly in-print content
Scanned either by publishers or by Google
No controversy, many publisher partners
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Library project
Scanning both in-copyright and public domain books from library collections
Trying for comprehensiveness: every book ever published
Very controversial
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Four Views
Full View
Limited View
Snippet View
No Preview Available
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Full View
Books in public domain or explicitly released in full by author or publisher
Entire book available to view online or download in PDF form
Typically scanned from a library; source listed on “About this book” page
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Limite
d
Preview
By publisher permission
Less than the whole book, more than fair use would allow
Nothing to do with the library project
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
Snippet
View
Books in copyright, scanned from a library, no publisher or author permission granted
Like a card catalog entry, except it shows small bits of text surrounding your search terms
The main source of controversy
Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour
More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html
No Preview
Available
Books in copyright, scanned from a library, no publisher or author permission granted
No snippets or anything; just the basic information like a catalog record
New from settlement negotiations (I believe)
Story time…
Back in 2004…
I’m at Northwestern University Library, Department of Collection Management
Applying to Library Schools
Google Book Search (then Google Print) announced 5 library partners:
Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, NYPL, and U. of Michigan
Go Blue!
Fall 2005: Michigan
Working at the Graduate Library reference desk
One of my first classes: Intellectual Property and Information Law …and then, the
lawsuits
In the Fleming Building
UM Media Relations and Public Affairs “Google Library Partnership
Research Intern”
My domain: Non-legal challenges to the
project New media (both directions)
Major piece early on: Mary Sue Coleman’s speech to the Association of American Publishers
Four PerspectivesIn Simplified – or Even Simplistic – Form
Perspective 1: “Google books is theft!”
Who has it: Association of American Publishers Author’s Guild (Also miscellaneous others, but
those are the ones that sued)
What it is: By scanning millions of books that
are still under copyright, without asking the permission of the copyright holders, Google is violating those copyrights and essentially stealing money out of the pocket of honest, hardworking authors.Pat Schroeder, former head of
the AAP. Her view: “Not only is Google trying to rewrite copyright law, it is also
crushing creativity.”
Perspective 2: “Google Books will Save* the World**!”*or at least change**or authorship, publishing, education, equal access…
Who has it: Some of Google’s library partners Enthusiastic fans, in academia and
elsewhere Google itself (most of the time)
What it is: As a searchable, globally-available, free-
to-the user digital collection of the world’s books, Google Book has the potential to carry the information they contain to underserved populations, to aid in decentralized preservation of that information, and to generate uses for books and their contents never before considered.
Cory Doctorow, author and blogger: GBS “promises to save
writers' and publishers' asses by putting their books into the index of works that are visible to
searchers who get all their information from the
Internet.”
Perspective 3: “Google Books is an American/Anglophone Imperialist plot!”
Who has it: Mainly Europeans interested in
cultural heritage – and among those, mostly the French
Has fallen out of style somewhat as Google has taken on more international partners
What it is: Because it is the project of an
American corporation, whose library partners are predominantly American and British, Google Book Search will serve to entrench Anglo-American cultural hegemony worldwide.
Jean-Noël Jeanneney, French historian and politician:
Perspective 4: “Google Books is actually a pretty cool idea, but it endangers _______.*”*(a) information freedom, (b) privacy, (c) public institutions, (d) legal procedure, (e) all of the above, (f) other
Who has it: Many authors, academics, librarians, and
legal scholars – including me
What it is: Fundamentally, scanning all the world’s
books is a good – even amazing and world-changing – idea. However, proceeding with such a radical project without due consideration to its potential ethical, social, and political implications risks creating a brave new world in which none of us want to live.
It should be noted that many who might fall into this category still vehemently disagree about the project and its implications.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, Media & Communication Scholar: “We have focused on quantity and convenience at the expense of the richness and serendipity of the full library experience. We
are making a tremendous mistake.”
So you’ve got a library…
…would you share it with Google?
So what’s in it for the libraries?
Fundamental Library Mission Connect users with
information
Money Digitization is expensive,
Google will do it for free
Time Have the whole collection
scanned in years rather than decades
Input Take part in the ongoing
dialogue between Google and partner libraries about project direction, image and metadata quality, etc.
LOCKSS Redundant digital storage of
the library’s information (though not its artifacts)
Publicity/Prestige Two ways:
1. Through involvement itself 2. Library name appears on
the book-viewing page when a scan is from your library
Why libraries might say“thanks, but no thanks”
(an incomplete list)
Insufficient Reward (contracts vary greatly)
Objection to certain aspects of the project or settlement, especially: The fact that the initiative is private, not
public The level of control over digitized materials
that Google would have relative to library partners
Concept of users interfacing with the “library of the future” through Google
Image quality and/or metadata problems Failure to adequately protect user privacy
The Proposed Settlement
Allows Google to show more of in-copyright books than just snippets
Allows for sale of digital books to individuals, and subscriptions to institutions
Creates a rights clearinghouse called the Book Rights Registry for dealing with payments from these sales
Allows for public access terminals to be placed in public libraries
Heinously complex!
Resources: The Public Index: http://thepublicindex.org/ ARL’s Guides for the Perplexed (&other resources):
http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/google/index.shtml Official Settlement website: http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/ Pamela Samuelson (on the legal issues): http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam/
Thanks!