RE: ACLS Panel Discussion on the Google Books Settlement

["Peter B. Hirtle" <pbh6@cornell.edu>]

Last week Ann Okerson sent out the message below that mentioned
the AGAINST THE GRAIN issue devoted in part to the Settlement.
Thanks to her efforts, an electronic version of the articles in
the issue is available at:

http://www.acls.org/uploadedFiles/About/Annual_Meetings/2010/GoogleBooks_AgainstTheGrainJune2010.pdf.

The essays are well worth a read, though three stand out.
Pamela Samuelson's piece is a very short precis of some of her
important criticisms (which have been further developed by Kevin
Smith in an interesting piece at:


http://library.duke.edu/blogs/scholcomm/2010/07/06/google-books-orphan-works-and-academic-values/.

James O'Donnell's essay is from his perspective as a scholar.
As usual, it is very thoughtful (though with nothing as memorable
as his line in the ACLS talk about the commercial nature of the
Google product: "I am not grumpy because the contents of this
will not be free.  I leave that grumpiness to the theologians of
open access, who pursue their cause with all the passion, and all
the likelihood of contributing to the betterment of mankind, that
theological warriors are known for.")  Ivy Anderson's piece is a
tour-de-force explaining both why almost all libraries are
supporting the settlement in spite of its continuing flaws, and
what libraries are doing in their negotiations with Google (and
outside of the settlement) to ameliorate those flaws.

Peter

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
[mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Okerson, Ann
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 1:55 AM
To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
Subject: ACLS Panel Discussion on the Google Books Settlement

The audio file described below may be of interest to those
following the Google Settlement.

Also for a collection of essays on the Settlement, see the brand
new June (ALA Annual) 2010 issues of AGAINST THE GRAIN (which is
in print format).  The essays in that publication aim for a broad
overview and include pieces by:

*Ivy Anderson, California Digital Library (a librarian
perspective)

*Pamela Samuelson, University of California (author perspective)

*James O'Donnell, Georgetown University (scholar perspective)

*Paul Whitney, Vancouver Public Library (Canadian Perspective)

*Stuart Hamilton, IFLA (The Netherlands -- international library
perspective)

Ann Okerson