Google and the Librarians
June 17, 2009
Time Magazine, now freed of AOL, continues to probe the online world with a friskiness that I find illuminating. The most recent effort is by Janet Morrissey. Her article “Librarians Fighting Google’s Book Deal” makes it clear to me that Time Magazine is not leaning toward Google in the Great Google Book matter. “Matter” is a legal eagle word because that’s how the Google Book deal is going to be worked out. Journalists, mavens, and pundits won’t have much impact if the hassle between Google and parties to its deal with publishers continues to escalate.
Ms. Morrissey said:
In a complex settlement agreement, which took three years to hammer out and spans 135 pages excluding attachments, Google will be allowed to show up to 20% of the books’ text online at no charge to Web surfers. But the part of the settlement that deals with so-called orphan books — which refers to out-of-print books whose authors and publishers are unknown — is what’s ruffling the most feathers in the literary henhouse. The deal gives Google an exclusive license to publish and profit from these orphans, which means it won’t face legal action if an author or owner comes forward later. This, critics contend, gives it a competitive edge over any rival that wants to set up a competing digital library. And without competition, opponents fear Google will start charging exorbitant fees to academic libraries and others who want full access to its digital library.
The wrap up to the story does little to reassure the goslings about Time’s view of this issue:
The library community recalls with horror the pricing fiasco that occurred when industry consolidation left academic journals in the hands of five publishing companies. The firms hiked subscription prices 227% over a 14-year period, between 1986 and 2002, forcing cash-strapped libraries to drop many subscriptions, according to Van Orsdel. “The chance of the price being driven up in a similar way (in the Google deal) is really very real,” he says.
I would have liked to see some views from front line librarians, in-the-fray information professionals included in the write up. The Special Library Association is meeting in Washington, DC, this week. I wonder what the view from that group is? I will have to make some phone calls, but a sentence or two in Time would have been helpful to me.
Stephen Arnold, June 17, 2009
Comments
-
- Subscribe to Beyond Search
Feature archive
News archive
-
