Group items tagged

This is a lengthy 2005 article on Google's digital book preservation initiative. Google has undertaken an ambitious project, and the author details how exactly the books digitally preserved, how they are cataloged, and how ancient handwritten books are transformed into searchable text. At the time this article was written, it was still unknown as to what Google planned on doing with all the books it digitized and various options are discussed. Policy issues are touched on very lightly, other than the books added to the digital collection are largely those which are not protected by copyright law.

This is the Website for the Universal Digital Library project at Carnegie Mellon University. The "Copyright Policy" page clearly spells out how the project adheres to the existing copyright law, and provides information for authors who either want to add their work to the project or have it removed. It is interesting that this project allows for self-publication.

How will scholars have access to print collections if libraries go digital? "This working group was convened in December 2007 to advance the work originally begun under the auspices of the North American Storage Trust, to develop a common understanding of the inter-institutional agreements necessary to promote cost-effective management of legacy print collections. The committee was charged with compiling and synthesizing policy documentation for shared print collections so that common requirements might be identified."

Skeptical paper on shift to digital colelctions

INASP's work focuses on communication, knowledge and networks, with particular emphasis on the needs of developing and emerging countries. We respond to their national priorities for: * access to national and international scholarly information and knowledge * capacities to use, create, manage and communicate scholarly information and knowledge via appropriate ICTs * national, regional and international co-operation, networking and knowledge exchange We also advise and advocate for improved policy and practice in achieving sustainable and equitable development through effective communication, knowledge and networks.

This article mostly covers the process of mass digitization. One of the recommendations at the end of the article states, " A "digital lending right" should be created to provide universal access to all out-of-print works, through collaboration between national governments and creative communities. This would remove a barrier to the mass democratization of information access and make a contribution to the survival of some threatened languages."

The internet, cell phones, and other digital technologies have allowed people to have larger social networks, to participate in and learn from larger numbers of groups, to act in new ways to shape their world, and to gather, asses and act on information of all kinds from all kinds of "media." This marks a major shift in the social and civic lives of Americans that has big implications for libraries as they think about serving their communities. Lee will explore all these changes through the lens of the surveys and research of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.\n

This is a summary of the problems presented in the development of digital libraries. it presents some examples of library conversions, and raises some questions that may be relevant to our study.

How can we navigate through the information landscape that is only beginning to come into view? The question is more urgent than ever following the recent settlement between Google and the authors and publishers who were suing it for alleged breach of copyright. For the last four years, Google has been digitizing millions of books, including many covered by copyright, from the collections of major research libraries, and making the texts searchable online. The authors and publishers objected that digitizing constituted a violation of their copyrights. After lengthy negotiations, the plaintiffs and Google agreed on a settlement, which will have a profound effect on the way books reach readers for the foreseeable future. What will that future be?

Libraries already act like Google in many ways. Or I should say instead, Google acts like libraries. It is the mission of both to organize the world's information, to make it openly accessible, to find and present the most authoritative (by many definitions) sources, to instill an ethic of information use in the public, to act as a platform for communities of information, to encourage creation. So how could libraries, in turn, think like Google? Some libraries act as platforms for community content creation (one of my first efforts in hyperlocal community journalism, GoSkokie.net, made with the Medill School of Journalism, is now run by the library). In how many ways could a library act as a platform for the community to inform itself by providing tools and training for content creation? How can libraries collect the wisdom of the crowd that is their communities (e.g., creating collaborative town wikis and maps made by the community)? Librarians and their expert patrons could curate the web and create topic pages that would rise in Google search as valuable resources for the world (if your library is in Florida, it could maintain the best collections of sources for information on manatees or sunburns). What I'd really like to do is brainstorm this question with your readers on my blog: How could they be Googlier?

A lot of headlines and blogs to the contrary, publishing isn't dying. But it is evolving, and so radically that we may hardly recognize it when it's done. Literature interprets the world, but it's also shaped by that world, and we're living through one of the greatest economic and technological transformations since--well, since the early 18th century. The novel won't stay the same: it has always been exquisitely sensitive to newness, hence the name. It's about to renew itself again, into something cheaper, wilder, trashier, more democratic and more deliriously fertile than ever.

Another article that can be accessed in full through Science Direct. This article outlines discussions from the 2008 presentation at the NETSL conference. Not an article per se, but perhaps a source for topics to explore and people to interview.

This is an in-depth study conducted by the Library of Congress over a period of years to discover and address the issues raised by conversion to digital media. Interestingly, this study is published as an e-book that is freely readable on the web, but must be purchased for download. I just tagged this with each of the main headers because there are chapters in this book that discuss all aspects of our project.

This lengthy New York Times Magazine article discusses mass scanning projects and their impacts in many areas: linking, tagging, and accessibility, among others. Ultimately, author Kevin Kelly imagines that all digitized books will be linked together as on universal book. He discusses the impact of copyright law on existing works and the inevitable out of print "orphans," and Google's plan to scan all the orphans and allow snippets to be accessed under the fair use doctrine. This assumption by Google that it can scan first and find copyright owners later results in a lawsuit that the author describes as a "clash of business models." Business models based on copies are obsolete as business models based on value and searchability take their places.

access vs ownership

Volume 64 of the Encyclopedia of Library and information Science: Access Versus Ownership discussion. There are articles in this volume that touch upon all aspects of our project.

Blog posting re: the SUL library council's report

Blog entry about micro-publishing