Since Google Books comes up frequently in our conversations here, I
thought I would make sure that this group is aware of the potential
transformation of GBS into a monopoly product controlling book
digitization. It's hard to define in a few words, but in June a judge
will decide if Google -- and Google only -- gets a free pass on
digitizing out of print/in copyright books without violating copyright.
Google will then license those books to users and institutions. As Paul
Courant said in his blog post "The Google Settlement - From the
Universal Library to the Universal Bookstore":
"As the product develops, academic libraries will be able to license not
only their own digitized works but everyone else’s."
http://paulcourant.net/2008/10/28/the-google-settlement-from-the-universal-library-to-the-universal-bookstore/
Yes, the participating libraries, those whose works are being digitized,
will "be able to license... their own digitized works" from Google for
full viewing. The full viewing is good news, the control over this by
Google much less so. Libraries cannot let anyone look at their own
digital copies, but they must license it from Google.
There are lots of problems, not the least of which is transparency. We
know very little about what Google offers in GBS. We didn't even know
how many books it had digitized until the number showed up in the pages
of the settlement agreement (7 million). We don't know (and have no
control over) what order retrieved books are delivered in, how indexing
is done, what metadata Google has, etc. etc. Google can decide to
exclude any works it wants, for "editorial reasons." And it's not clear
that a list of excluded works will be public. It sets prices, as agreed
on by the authors and publishers. It determines functionality, although
some functionality is already limited in the lawsuit (e.g. public
libraries cannot provide remote access, only in-library access, to the
service; all books remain on Google's servers, even those purchased by
individuals; libraries cannot purchase books, only subscribe to the
service).
I've been at two all-day meetings about this lawsuit, I've read most of
the 140 pages + 13 appendices, and I'm still not at all sure what the
shape of this thing is. I only know that it's huge, and we need to be
paying attention.
The ALA Washington Office is watching this. http://wo.ala.org/gbs/. The
listing of blog posts about it (which is probably the most digestible
information): http://wo.ala.org/gbs/articles-blog-posts-links/. My blog
posts on it, including the talk I gave at ALA Denver:
http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/search/label/googlebooks
kc
--
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle@kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596 skype: kcoylenet
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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Received on Tue Mar 03 2009 - 09:58:33 EST