Re: Does Google Book Scanning Devalue Libraries?

[Sandy Thatcher <sandy.thatcher@alumni.princeton.edu>]

I just added the following comment to this very interesting 
dialogue:

>It's interesting to me that there is no mention here of the 
>Hathi Trust, which built on the Google Library Project to add 
>new value to it in various ways, especially through digitization 
>of special collections that are unique to each participating 
>library and the offer of new services, some of which are 
>available only to members. This certainly extends the value of 
>what Google started immeasurably, and unlike GBS, it is under 
>the control of the member libraries. This is a good thing both 
>for the world of scholarship at large, which benefits from open 
>access to rich resources hitherto accessible only to people who 
>visited the physical libraries, and also to the participating 
>libraries, whose patrons gain extra layers of service not 
>granted to non-members. At the same time, I have earlier raised 
>in an e-mail exchange with Rick whether the availability of 
>these special collections does not at least somewhat diminish 
>the value these libraries can claim to have as destination sites 
>for researchers, somewhat along the lines of the point Todd 
>makes here. And, unlike books (unless they are really rare), 
>these special collections do need to be maintained in print form 
>because at least some of them have continuing value as physical 
>artifacts.

Sandy Thatcher


>In an equally compelling comment to Rick Anderson's Google Book
>Settlement, Todd Carpenter argues that book scanning has devalued
>libraries and that university librarians (especially those who
>led the flock into the agreement with Google) should not start
>playing victim.
>
>"to start complaining that the work is going to only provide
>Google with an unencumbered monopoly on the world's greatest
>library ever compiled seems to me the worst form of
>Monday-morning quarterbacking. It is hardly as if the various
>participating libraries weren't sitting at the table and taking
>these decisions about what would happen, when and how."
>
>see:
>http://j.mp/euOBt2