More on Google digitization
Via Open Access News, this Kevin Drum post on the Google digitization project. READ THE COMMENTS. They are library debates in microcosm, just wonderful. Some ill-informed people (a lot of people have missed the bit where the libraries are hanging onto whatever files Google generates!), and some misconceptions, of course, but on the whole, it’s good stuff.
All I have to add is a couple cents’ worth about Michael Gorman. He has always been anti-digital (just read what I’ve written about him for details). His exception for reference books I believe to be of relatively recent vintage, and has always been extraordinarily grudging. He wouldn’t like me one bit (sorry, Walt, but it’s true), and I had to hold my nose to vote for him as ALA president because I disagree so very strongly with his anti-digital opinions.
When I saw that he’d written an op-ed, I rolled my eyes, because I knew what he’d say. I read it anyway. Turns out I could practically have written it for him, I knew so well what he’d say.
But, you know what? Even as ALA president, he’s pretty easy to ignore on this point. He’s not going to stop me finding a job and doing my text-artisanry. He’s not going to stop Harvard and Michigan and those folks doing as they see fit. So it’s all good; the egg’ll be on his face, in the end.