“Libraries exist to preserve society’s cultural artifacts and to provide access to them. If libraries are to continue to foster education and scholarship in this era of digital technology, it’s essential for them to extend those functions into the digital world.”
One of the most important battles in the book world today is the fight for who gets to digitally archive our literary heritage.
From the leading university libraries to the great collections housed in our public institutions decisions are being made that could potentially alter access to the treasure trove of material that lies within their walls.
It is an idea and technology whose time has come. The promise of offering the primary texts of our country’s (or the worlds for that matter) literary and historical heritage to its citizens to access from any computer in the land is as democratic an activity that one could hope for.
The problem here is in the execution. Google has taken the lead here. They are an over funded ‘public’ company with private interests who have already acquired digital dibs on choice content.
The Internet Archive, one the other hand, is a not-for-profit organization determined to provide the content of the public domain to the public for free via the Internet.
Of course it is hard to compete with a Google who has tons of money to throw at our cash-starved libraries but this is about much more than money. Unlimited and free access, the right of every citizen, to our cultural history and identity cannot be compromised.
If Google wants to digitize the collections of private institutions by all means go ahead but to venture into the realm of digitizing the content of public institutions (remember University libraries are public institutions) is a slippery slope that unfortunately we have started to slide down.
We need to do all we can to stop this digital freight train. The message is simple. For profit companies cannot digitize the content of public institutions or public libraries.
Let the Internet Archive take care of digitizing the treasures of our public institutions and libraries. We can set aside a portion of the budget for the Library of Congress (a current supporter) and the Smithsonian Institution or how about a 1% digital archive tax on every new computer purchased.
The point is we need to get creative here. Fast.
We need to buy back the rights that were sold to Google (at a premium of course) and go about doing this the right way.
Also of note is the recent news of our U.S. National Archives entering into an agreement with Footnote.com to digitize millions of historical records and ephemera that are in the public domain. We are talking about source material from our Continental Congress to Civil War photographs of Matthew Brady. The catch: $100 a year to join Footnote to view most of the documents.
What in the world is Footnote.com? Google is one thing but to sell out to Footnote.com is downright embarrassing.
Google’s next battle will be against the wiki world. Let’s hope the Internet Archive’s next battle is with Congress for funding.
On the topic:
my past posts: internet archive and Google
if:book post
Dan Cohen, author of Digital History: A Guide to Gathering, Preserving, and Presenting the Past on the Web, post
CNet article from Oct 05 “Google’s battle over library books.”
Thanks to Cheap Priceless Editions for this one
lead quote from from the Internet Archive