The Google Books Library ProjectPersonal Experiences, Public Perspectives, and Issues Relevant to Libraries

Elisabeth Jones LIS 520, Winter 2010

Outline

The 50¢ tour of Google Book

My experiences with the project

A Spectrum of Perspectives

What’s in it for libraries? What’s not?

The Proposed Settlement

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Two projects, really

Publisher project

Library project

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Publisher project

Contracts with publishers to host in-copyright, mostly in-print content

Scanned either by publishers or by Google

No controversy, many publisher partners

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Library project

Scanning both in-copyright and public domain books from library collections

Trying for comprehensiveness: every book ever published

Very controversial

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Four Views

Full View

Limited View

Snippet View

No Preview Available

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Full View

Books in public domain or explicitly released in full by author or publisher

Entire book available to view online or download in PDF form

Typically scanned from a library; source listed on “About this book” page

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Limite

d

Preview

By publisher permission

Less than the whole book, more than fair use would allow

Nothing to do with the library project

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

Snippet

View

Books in copyright, scanned from a library, no publisher or author permission granted

Like a card catalog entry, except it shows small bits of text surrounding your search terms

The main source of controversy

Google Book Search: the 50¢ tour

More at: http://books.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html

No Preview

Available

Books in copyright, scanned from a library, no publisher or author permission granted

No snippets or anything; just the basic information like a catalog record

New from settlement negotiations (I believe)

Story time…

Back in 2004…

I’m at Northwestern University Library, Department of Collection Management

Applying to Library Schools

Google Book Search (then Google Print) announced 5 library partners:

Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, NYPL, and U. of Michigan

Go Blue!

Fall 2005: Michigan

Working at the Graduate Library reference desk

One of my first classes: Intellectual Property and Information Law …and then, the

lawsuits

In the Fleming Building

UM Media Relations and Public Affairs “Google Library Partnership

Research Intern”

My domain: Non-legal challenges to the

project New media (both directions)

Major piece early on: Mary Sue Coleman’s speech to the Association of American Publishers

Four PerspectivesIn Simplified – or Even Simplistic – Form

Perspective 1: “Google books is theft!”

Who has it: Association of American Publishers Author’s Guild (Also miscellaneous others, but

those are the ones that sued)

What it is: By scanning millions of books that

are still under copyright, without asking the permission of the copyright holders, Google is violating those copyrights and essentially stealing money out of the pocket of honest, hardworking authors.Pat Schroeder, former head of

the AAP. Her view: “Not only is Google trying to rewrite copyright law, it is also

crushing creativity.”

Perspective 2: “Google Books will Save* the World**!”*or at least change**or authorship, publishing, education, equal access…

Who has it: Some of Google’s library partners Enthusiastic fans, in academia and

elsewhere Google itself (most of the time)

What it is: As a searchable, globally-available, free-

to-the user digital collection of the world’s books, Google Book has the potential to carry the information they contain to underserved populations, to aid in decentralized preservation of that information, and to generate uses for books and their contents never before considered.

Cory Doctorow, author and blogger: GBS “promises to save

writers' and publishers' asses by putting their books into the index of works that are visible to

searchers who get all their information from the

Internet.”

Perspective 3: “Google Books is an American/Anglophone Imperialist plot!”

Who has it: Mainly Europeans interested in

cultural heritage – and among those, mostly the French

Has fallen out of style somewhat as Google has taken on more international partners

What it is: Because it is the project of an

American corporation, whose library partners are predominantly American and British, Google Book Search will serve to entrench Anglo-American cultural hegemony worldwide.

Jean-Noël Jeanneney, French historian and politician:

Perspective 4: “Google Books is actually a pretty cool idea, but it endangers _______.*”*(a) information freedom, (b) privacy, (c) public institutions, (d) legal procedure, (e) all of the above, (f) other

Who has it: Many authors, academics, librarians, and

legal scholars – including me

What it is: Fundamentally, scanning all the world’s

books is a good – even amazing and world-changing – idea. However, proceeding with such a radical project without due consideration to its potential ethical, social, and political implications risks creating a brave new world in which none of us want to live.

It should be noted that many who might fall into this category still vehemently disagree about the project and its implications.

Siva Vaidhyanathan, Media & Communication Scholar: “We have focused on quantity and convenience at the expense of the richness and serendipity of the full library experience. We

are making a tremendous mistake.”

So you’ve got a library…

…would you share it with Google?

So what’s in it for the libraries?

Fundamental Library Mission Connect users with

information

Money Digitization is expensive,

Google will do it for free

Time Have the whole collection

scanned in years rather than decades

Input Take part in the ongoing

dialogue between Google and partner libraries about project direction, image and metadata quality, etc.

LOCKSS Redundant digital storage of

the library’s information (though not its artifacts)

Publicity/Prestige Two ways:

1. Through involvement itself 2. Library name appears on

the book-viewing page when a scan is from your library

Why libraries might say“thanks, but no thanks”

(an incomplete list)

Insufficient Reward (contracts vary greatly)

Objection to certain aspects of the project or settlement, especially: The fact that the initiative is private, not

public The level of control over digitized materials

that Google would have relative to library partners

Concept of users interfacing with the “library of the future” through Google

Image quality and/or metadata problems Failure to adequately protect user privacy

The Proposed Settlement

Allows Google to show more of in-copyright books than just snippets

Allows for sale of digital books to individuals, and subscriptions to institutions

Creates a rights clearinghouse called the Book Rights Registry for dealing with payments from these sales

Allows for public access terminals to be placed in public libraries

Heinously complex!

Resources: The Public Index: http://thepublicindex.org/ ARL’s Guides for the Perplexed (&other resources):

http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/google/index.shtml Official Settlement website: http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/ Pamela Samuelson (on the legal issues): http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~pam/

Thanks!