Google,Open Content Alliance,and Microsoft:Unholy Un-trinity?

The title of this recent New York Times article bugged:

Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web.

Sounds like librarians are being selfish,right? We don’t want to share our books…you must come to our libraries <insert malevolent cackle>.

Actually,the article is about the recent decision of the Boston Library Consortium and a few other big players making a decision not to share their information with for-profit orgs Google and Microsoft (which place restrictions on the materials),and instead working with the Open Content Alliance to digitize materials that are out of copyright. Being a happy library cardholder of several of the institutions mentioned,I would have access to the materials in any case,but as a librarian/information professional,I really like the idea that the information would be accessible to those not ordinarily served by the particular libraries.

While the books involved in the above projects are (to my knowledge) not archival materials,I wanted to note that I’m in favor of digitization projects that work to provide access while preserving the context of the collection.

For instance,the Boston Public Library has the books of John Adams,and they were recently on exhibit at the main branch in Copley Square. While I did stop by several times to look at the materials,I’ve been even more excited about the website,because I can read Adams’notations at my leisure. One that I particularly enjoyed was his handwritten argument with Mary Wollstonecraft in the preface of An historical and moral view of the origin and progress of the French Revolution:and the effect it has produced in Europe:

“If Nature has no Father,no Creator,no Governor,and men are to perish,Inequality is a Right and it would be folly in him who posesses or can obtain an Advantage,to forego it.”

http://www.johnadamslibrary.org/book/?book=2257683Adams%20221.15&page=11

I love that the digitized collection allows one to search the transcriptions,but also examine Adams’words on the page in his elegant scrawl. Furthermore,I like that the pages are within the context of the entire book,as well as grouped with his collection of books,thereby providing a basis for researchers to understand Adams’notations as a whole.

I’ve veered a bit from my original intentions in this post,but here’s the point:I like access,and I like context. The three organizations listed in the title plan to provide some access to materials that in some cases were not previously available to a wider audience. That’s a good thing. However,I think that we need to be conscious of not only access,but also the delivery model that we use to serve up the information. If materials are available through Google Books,but the user still cannot access them,then are we really serving a greater audience?