Into the Googlian Future

["Peter McDonald" <apmcdona@syr.edu>]

Pardon me if I intrude with a word of caution regarding the recent
announcement about the Dig-Lib Partnership between Google and four major
ARL libraries. But perhaps a fly in the ointment might help us to step
back and think this through a bit more.

At all events, we now know Google intends to partner with four top tier
academic libraries (Harvard, Stanford, U. Mich, NYPL) to digitize millions
of pre-copyright books. While none of the reports provide any substantive
indication of how their financial model will sustain itself as this giddy
effort rolls on through the decades, nor how the copyright model for such
an endeavor will be managed let alone enforced, I am truly surprised how
little attention we pay to the fact that Google has made no bones that it
would comply with USAPATRIOT Act inquiries to turn over search records to
the U.S. Government if asked. (In fairness to Google, they're no worse
than any other commercial library vendor in this regard of course.)

See for example from the Electronic Frontier Foundation:

"Be careful what you put in that Google search. The government may now spy
on web surfing of innocent Americans, including terms entered into search
engines, by merely telling a judge anywhere in the U.S. that the spying
could lead to information that is "relevant" to an ongoing criminal
investigation. The person spied on does not have to be the target of the
investigation. This application must be granted and the government is not
obligated to report to the court or tell the person spied upon what it has
done. [EFF 10/31/01 post on: http://www.eff.org/] " "

Yet everywhere you look libraries are in bed with the likes of Google,
either opting to use its search engine as their own library web site's de
facto search box, or as in the public notice of the Google Library, where
you will be able (supposedly) to browse millions of books online via
Google (hey why go to the physical library right?) -- all with a company
who can potentially "rat" on "our" users if, and when the Justice Dept.
and the Office of Homeland Security come knocking at Google's door to see
who's perusing what.

Yet the hossanahs I hear about the Google announcement remind me of an
ancient tale:

"Citizens of Troy! Look at this magnificent gift of a big handsome
[digital] horse we have now in our midst ...................... !"

But it's not just Google. In the current Ashcroftian world we live in, all
the commercial vendors who keep "our" user statistics are potential Trojan
Horses of a sort given the wide sweep and powers of the USAPATRIOT Act.
These vendors may well be our dear colleagues and trusted content
providers when the waters are unruffled, but all the nicey-nice will mean
not much at all once a subpoena is tendered. By the very nature of our
licenses and because we have ubiquitous relationships with these corporate
entities, we've opened a potentially Superdome-sized Pandora's box by
which "our" government can quite easily spy on us and our users, without
ever walking into a library. All this despite our chest-thumping
protestations to the contrary. There's the rub.

Well it's worth a panged thought as we conveyor belt so effortlessly into
our respective bookless futures.

Peter McDonald
AUL for Collections
Syracuse University Library
#315-443-2977