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Gorman vs. Google library project
November 2, 2005 | 6:18 am
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By David Rothman
Michael Gorman, ALA president, won’t shut up about Google’s library project. Here’s the latest from the Wall Street Journal.
“I feel that this is a potential disaster on several levels,” said Michael Gorman, president of the American Library Association and university librarian at California State University, Fresno. “They are reducing scholarly texts to paragraphs. The point of a scholarly text is they are written to be read sequentially from beginning to end, making an argument and engaging you in dialogue.”
Mr. Gorman, who said the American Library Association doesn’t have an official position on the subject, described Google’s argument that Web users will be able to look at several snippets and then decide whether they want to buy or read the book as “ridiculous.” Further, he noted that as a published author, he opposes Google’s intention to build an enormous database that includes copyrighted texts. “It’s a flaunting of my intellectual property rights,” he said.
Meanwhile Google’s library scanners are back in action.
(Thanks to Neologize and David Brake.)
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Comments:
The quote from Gorman contains a humorous solecism that may disturb fellow members of the Library Association. The word “flaunting” is used incorrectly in a spot where Gorman probably meant to use the word “flouting”. Of course, it is also possible that the reporter incorrectly transcribed the quote and introduced the solecism.
I am glad Google is scanning again. Publishers want Google to request permission before scanning books. However, suppose a similar preemptive approach had been taken in the early days of the World Wide Web. Google and other search engine companies would have been required to request formal permission from every website before constructing indexes and allowing searches. Red tape and bureaucracy would have proliferated, and the completeness and utility of the web would have been considerably reduced.
The natural approach for restricting access to websites and books is providing an opt-out capability for rights holders. Currently, a website can opt-out of the Google index by creating a special “robot” file. Google also allows publishers to opt-out of book scanning and index creation.
those librarians, who says they don’t have
a sense of humor? look who they elected
as the president of their organization! :+)
-bowerbird