We Don’t Need Google | Editorial
Why make a deal with the devil when library solutions are emerging? Apr 15, 2011Judge Denny Chin may have disappointed his alma mater (he is Princeton ’75, according to The Daily Princetonian) when he ruled against the Google Amended Settlement Agreement (ASA) on March 22, 2011. Princeton was one of the university libraries to partner with Google for the digitization of its library, first of books in the public domain, then of books still in copyright (though it was not among the first five that came on board in 2004—the University of Michigan, Stanford, University of California, Oxford, and New York Public Library).
Chin’s ruling, however, reassured those among us who do not trust a commercial entity like Google to do the right thing as a steward of public access to digital books, as a guardian of user information, and as a protector of copyright and fair use.
While the Princetonian says the school was on track with Google to finish scanning its public domain material (about one million books) later this year, according to Princeton deputy university librarian Marvin Bielawski, it had also “planned to start sending books under copyright once the settlement was approved.” Now, that won’t happen, and the books will remain locked up, he said.
It’s a common misconception, however, that only the benevolent Google can “unlock” the nation’s library collections. In the half dozen years since the Google effort began, a number of other groups, comprising university libraries as well, have blossomed. Just one is the HathiTrust, which holds more than eight million volumes from many of the same institutions involved in the Google project. Technological advances will continue to bring down the cost of digitization. The longer the ASA drags through the courts, the less likely it is that Google will be the only game in town.
Another commonplace misconception, also reiterated in the Princetonian, is that under the ASA public libraries would have free access to the millions of Google books. With just the one free public terminal per public library building provided for under the ASA (and in-building use only), that notion is laughable. It totally ignores the huge role that public libraries play in making digital resources available to innumerable library users sitting at multiple terminals in libraries across the country, or accessing library resources remotely.
One of the most promising proposals to emerge recently, the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA), spearheaded by Harvard University Library’s Robert Darnton, would seem to eliminate any such restriction. In an op-ed in the New York Times on March 23, Darnton called for “A Digital [Public] Library Better Than Google’s.” A Concept Note issued March 26 by Harvard’s John Palfrey (a 2011 LJ Mover & Shaker) for the DPLA steering committee stated its intent: to “make the cultural and scientific heritage of humanity available, free of charge, to all.” Free to all.
The DPLA plans to begin with the “written record,” using public domain works already digitized by the Internet Archive, HathiTrust, Library of Congress, and, yes, even Google if it will cooperate, and to work on legislative and other solutions to include in-copyright but out-of-print works. Initially, the DPLA will seek funding from a coalition of foundations, though the steering committee said it hoped Congress would “appropriate funds to support this public good.” There have been similar proposals before, including a bill floating around Congress for a Corporation for Public Broadcasting–like entity to fund large-scale digitization, and the time has never been better to act.
The Google dream of digitizing the nation’s libraries need not be abandoned. We just don’t need Google to do it. Any of the noncommercial alternatives would be better than the Google deal.
| Author Information |
| Francine Fialkoff (ffialkoff@mediasourceinc.com) is Editor-in-Chief, LJ |
