I'm glad Karen brought this up...
To me, the most jaw-dropping aspect of the Google Books settlement is that the vaunted "library partners" (the libraries supplying the books for digitization) don't really seem to know what the settlement might mean for libraries.
The library partners do not seem to have played even an advisory role in the settlement. And if they were involved, they didn't do a very good job because ALA, ARL, and ACRL feel obliged to file an amicus curiae brief in the case, on behalf of the library community.
Andrew Albanese wrote the following in LJ's Academic Newswire:
"The decision to file an amicus brief from the library community comes after significant discussion among library leaders...it reveals the uneasy position libraries find themselves in as the Google settlement hurtles forward...the blunt instrument of an amicus brief may be the only formal voice libraries now have in the wide-ranging final settlement, one that could very well shape the future market for access to books."
I find it ironic that the library community feels obligated to file an amicus brief to protect our interests, while Paul Courant of Google library partner Michigan ended an October blog post on the settlement by saying: "Faculty, students, and other readers will be able to browse the collections of the world's great libraries from their desks and from their breakfast tables. That’s pretty cool."
Bernie Sloan
Sora Associates
Bloomington, IN
--- On Tue, 3/3/09, Karen Coyle <lists_at_KCOYLE.NET> wrote:
From: Karen Coyle <lists_at_KCOYLE.NET>
Subject: [NGC4LIB] Google Books, AAP Lawsuit, and Transparency
To: NGC4LIB_at_LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 9:57 AM
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
-- -----------------------------------
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
------------------------------------
Received on Tue Mar 03 2009 - 14:26:44 EST