Alexander Johannesen wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 19:33, Jan Szczepanski <jan.szczepanski_at_ub.gu.se> wrote:
>
>>>> We can't just rely on the Google machine
>>>>
>
> Me:
>
>>> Why?
>>>
>
>
>> Because we are in the library business
>>
>
> Which is what, exactly, these days?
>
as I said, building collections for our users, as we always have done. A
place
where you just find the best journals and the best books when you need it.
>
>> and we are trying to build
>> collections for our users and we
>> don't need information about everything, we just needs good catalogues.
>>
>
> Ah, but the Google machine is a good catalogue, so that reflects my
> original question; why can't you trust Google to make a darn good
> cataloge (which it really is)? What can you possibly hope to do
> better?
>
Where can I find the Google cataloguing rules so I can compare?
>
>>> But the point is that no
>>>
>>>> library is interested in collecting free e-books.
>>>>
>
>
>>> Why not?
>>>
>
>
>> I am extremely surprised to find out that every library in the world needs
>> the same journals and the same books.
>>
>
> I agree with you to some extent, and it certainly doesn't make sense
> in an electronic world.
>
But on a commercial market it does.
>
>> Free e-books is the hard way, the costly way, the boring way not the quick
>> fix as with commercial journals and books.
>>
>
> Don't think I understand what you're saying here, really. Are you
> afraid of the amount of data obscuring the goodness of the selected
> few?
>
No I just compared it with the quick fix. You are offered 2.000 journals
but needs just 400 of them
so You accept the 2.000 because that will be cheaper than buying just
the 400. You are dancing with
the wolfs so you make most of this and tells the world that you have
2.000 titles, extremely impressive.
You buys 50.000 e-books even if the quality is low and is extremely
impressive to have aquired so
many titles in such a short time. This is not the slow cherry-picking
way where you use a lot of criteria
before deciding to collect a book or journal.
>
>> But I just ask you, what shall I answer my library client when he wonders on
>> which shelves he can find free e-books? Where are the free e-books? In Goolge or
>> in our catalogue?
>>
>
> Free e-books are located on a server *somewhere*. Google certainly
> haven't got them (they're a catalog, not a library :), so why *not*
> the library?
>
Yes, that's the correct technical answer, but as a librarian in an
university library I would answer as usual
look in our cataluge, there you will find "commercial" titles and "free"
titles but I recommend that you first look at the
free ones because they are selected but if you are lucky you may find
something of interest even in the
"commercial silos" . As a librarian in a medical library I would warmly
recommend the "commercial" titles
because they are of high quality and are used. The free titles are
nonexistent. Something like that.
So for humanities and social sciences the free material is of high value
and worthwhile collecting and cataloguing.
For example of the one milion titles in Internet Archive I would expect
that about 100.000 are interesting for
a university library in Sweden covering humanities and social sciencens,
not the lot.
>
> Alex
>
Jan
--
De åsikter som framförs här är mina personliga
och inte ett uttryck för Göteborgs universitets-
biblioteks hållning
Opinions expressed here are my own and not
those of the Gothenburg University Library
Jan Szczepanski
Förste bibliotekarie
Goteborgs universitetsbibliotek
Box 222
SE 405 30 Goteborg, SWEDEN
Tel: +46 31 7861164 Fax: +46 31 163797
E-mail: Jan.Szczepanski_at_ub.gu.se
Received on Mon Mar 02 2009 - 06:16:38 EST