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Columbia University Libraries Joins Google Scan Plan
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Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 12/17/2007

The Columbia University Libraries announced last week that it is the 28th library to sign an agreement with Google to digitize library books in the public domain and make them available online. Under the agreement, librarians and Google will select "hundreds of thousands" of volumes from Columbia's 25 distinct libraries, including its rarest holdings. Digital copies of the books from Columbia will be fully searchable through Google. Because the books scanned will be in the public domain, users will be able to view the full text of the books and download them for leisure reading, research, or printing. As part of the deal, Columbia will also receive a "library" copy of every book scanned, which library officials said it will use both for preservation and instruction purposes. Library officials said they expect eventually to "integrate digital copies" into its extensive digital library program "to extend their utility for research and teaching." Columbia University Libraries is one of the top academic library systems in the nation, with 9.2 million volumes. James Neal, VP for information services and university librarian, said Columbia's participation in the Google plan will make available "significant portions" of the university's collections "in ways that will ultimately change the nature of scholarship."

Hmmm...The times are a changing. While this is old news it is a continuation of the trend to what many call a democratization of scholarly information and its exchange. But what if the libraries, on scanning there content, decide they can no longer house and care for certain documents? Supporters of Google want us to believe that problems of storage and retrieval in the e world will be solved. Maybe. But what of one corporation then controlling the content of millions of files that were once available in most cases for free. Will Google keep them free? Will the quality of information be stored and index in a way that searchers can find it? Will Google take care of the library like librarians? Will librarians be working for Google? You can see I have lots of questions. What are the answers?

When Google bought You Tube it was promised that not much would change. It was also promised that service would be improved. However, nearly a year later there seem to be more problems in the service. Despite new options and flashy buttons there have been cut backs in file storage and more adds and commercialization. A site which was once the haven of the unknown is being shaped into monster of the known. What was once a free for all is more like the attempts of other corporations to tame and own the most sacred of e places, the Internet itself. Corporate control of what belongs to all people is something we must fight.

I see opportunities and deep concerns in this scanning of so much library contents. I hope librarians across America will be ready for what is ahead

Any thoughts?

Here is a link to the story above:

http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6513347.html