Till Kinstler wrote:
> Bernhard Eversberg schrieb:
>
>
>> Contrary to GBS practice, DDB will ask rightsholders first before
>> scanning their works, said cabinet minister Neumann. A noble intention
>> indeed.
>
> I see hundreds of pages specifying abstract rights management
> requirements with fancy features (moving walls, special agreements,
> geographic restrictions, ..., automatic checks how long a creator is
> dead, ...) no one will ever be able to implement...
>
Did I sound like I thought it might be doable?
>> As far as Google News reaches, there seems to be no news about it
>> in the forein press, whereas all German media carry the report and
>> commentators seem to be unanimously pleased with the idea of a
>> competition against Google.
>
> Note how the term "Google" is used twice in that sentence :-). You won't
> compete with Google by government order (why compete with them at all?).
> Simply contribute to that global digital library by providing good,
> usable services and people will happily use them...
>
I frequently forget to use an icon (and which one?) where I'm being
slightly ironic.
Just think: 5m Euro to integrate 30.000 institutions, that means
roughly 167 for each of them. Or 18 mio over 6 years, as the plan seems
to suggest as a ceiling, makes 600 per place. So much for that "generous
endowment".
No, I don't actually think these plans will lend us the upper hand over
Google, nor even make us competitive. This need not be seen as a
competition, though. Libraries and GBS are parts of a bigger picture
and we need to find our roles in it and see what, if anything, we can
do better than them. These days, however, "Google" counts as a synonym
for "Internet" and I wonder what "libraries", let alone "catalogs", are
synonymic for. And like Jim I can't say I'm entirely comfortable with
this. Sure, it is the least costly way for us to make available what's
been done, for we need only put things on open servers and link to them
from open pages.
There are only two prices to pay: first is, some stuff (and no one can
predict how much) gets drowned in Google's sea of irrelevance, as Jim
pointed out, and the second is we need to trust their motto "Don't be
evil". An historically unprecedented situation, to say the least, and as
hard as ever to anticipate what even the near-term future will bring.
B.Eversberg
Received on Thu Dec 03 2009 - 09:43:05 EST