RE: Google Print - Peter Brantley in Chronicle of Higher Ed

["Tony McSean" <tmcsean@hollar.co.uk>]

Well spotted, Bernie.  Looks to me like a classic example of "I think this
is very bad because, er . . ."

Many years ago when I catalogued new books for a living I used to feel deep
background unease that however long I spent on subject analysis neither I
nor library catalogue technology was remotely capable of coming up with an
adequate pointer to the subject content of a 350 page academic monograph.
This was particularly true about disciplines like, dare I say it, sociology
books which aren't always "about" anything in the sense that the Dewey
classification (and others) seems to demand.

Back in the mid 70s I never imagined a situation when digitising and
networking would be feasible, but while it might bring the demise of
scholarly libraries as we've known them, it's hard to imagine anything that
would be a more effective start in bringing the masses flooding into the
cultural and scientific archive.

Tony

Tony McSean
+44  7946 291780


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of B.G. Sloan
Sent: 23 January 2008 01:00
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: Re: Google Print - Peter Brantley in Chronicle of Higher Ed


    I liked this one:

Q. How does Google Book Search hurt libraries?

A. The libraries have to make a significant commitment in terms
of getting their books to Google. The books have to come off the
shelves. Then after being scanned they have to be put back on the
shelves. And this resource drain is going to limit the ability of
libraries to engage in other activities.

    My comment: Doesn't it seem like the cost of taking a book off
a shelf and putting it back on the shelf would be well worth the
cost of getting the book digitized for "free"? That is, wouldn't
it be cheaper to absorb the cost of moving the book to and from
the shelf with "free" digization, rather than the cost of moving
the book back and forth PLUS the cost of digitization by going
with something other than Google?

    Bernie Sloan