It is amazing that the traditional archivists of human knowledge - the libraries - failed so spectacularly to ride the tiger of the Internet, that epitome and apex of knowledge creation and distribution. At first, libraries, the inertial repositories of printed matter, were overwhelmed by the rapid pace of technology and by the ephemeral and anarchic content it spawned. They were reduced to providing access to dull card catalogues and unimaginative collections of web links. The more daring added online exhibits and digitized collections. A typical library web site is still comprised of static representations of the library's physical assets and a few quasi-interactive services.
The lending of e-books to patrons appears to be a natural extension of the classical role of libraries: physical book lending. Libraries sought also to extend their archival functions to e-books. But librarians failed to grasp the essential and substantive differences between the two formats. E-books can be easily, stealthily, and cheaply copied, for instance. The source of the e-book - scanned printed titles, or converted digital files - is immaterial and irrelevant. The minute a title becomes an e-book, copyright violations are a real and present danger. Moreover, e-books are not a tangible product. "Lending" an e-book - is tantamount to copying an e-book. In other words, e-books are not books at all. They are software products. Libraries have pioneered digital collections (as they have other information technologies throughout history) and are still the main promoters of e-publishing. Solutions are, appropriately, being borrowed from the software industry. NetLibrary has lately granted multiple user licences to a university library system. Such licences allow for unlimited access and are priced according to the number of the library's patrons, or the number of its reading devices and terminals. Another possibility is to implement the shareware model - a trial period followed by a purchase option or an expiration, a-la Rosetta's expiring e-book.
Distributor Baker & Taylor have unveiled at the recent ALA a prototype e-book distribution system jointly developed by ibooks and Digital Owl. It will be sold to libraries by B&T's Informata division and Reciprocal.
The annual subscription for use of the digital library comprises "a catalog of digital content, brandable pages and web based tools for each participating library to customize for their patrons. Patrons of participating libraries will then be able to browse digital content online, or download and check out the content they are most interested in. Content may be checked out for an extended period of time set by each library, including checking out eBooks from home." Free Internet access and e-book reading devices in libraries notwithstanding - the Internet, unless harnessed and integrated by libraries, threatens their very existence by depriving them of patrons. Libraries, in turn, threaten the budding software industry we, misleadingly, call "e-publishing".
There are major operational and philosophical differences between physical and virtual libraries. Physical libraries enjoy great advantages, not the least being their habit-forming head start (2,500 years of first mover advantage). Libraries have catered to users' reference needs in reference centres for centuries (and, lately, through Selective Dissemination of Information, or SDI). "Progress" may yet consist of the assimilation of hi-tech gadgets by lo-tech libraries.
Google Brings Millions of Hard-to-Find Library Books to Your Fingertips
Millions of hard-to-find books from five major libraries will soon be a lot easier to access: Google has made plans to scan and digitize them, making the books available on their widely used Internet search engine.
Google's latest endeavor is a large step beyond previous attempts to scan books so they can be read online (Google, Amazon.com and other smaller sites have offered glimpses of books and libraries online before). What makes this initiative so different is the sheer breadth of material that Google plans to cover.
Five libraries will be involved in the project in various stages:
* New York public library: Allowing Google a small portion of books no longer covered by copyright.
* Harvard University library: Is contributing a limited 40,000 volumes to guage how well the process works.
* Stanford University library: Will submit its entire collection to Google's scanners.
* Michigan University library: Will also submit its entire collection.
* Oxford University library: Contributing all its books published before 1901
To get an idea of just how large a project Google is taking on, consider that Michigan's library alone contains 7 million volumes, which is about 132 miles of books, while Harvard's library contains 15 million. Google users will only be able to view bibliographies and other brief excerpts from the copyrighted books scanned from the libraries, while works no longer covered by copyrights will be completely available to the online public.
USA Today December 14, 2004
New York Times December 14, 2004
Dr. Mercola's Comment:
Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have long vowed to make all of the world's information accessible to anyone with a Web browser. Now that vow will come closer to being implemented as Google has made an agreement with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.
Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library are some of the U.S. institutions that will be involved. The whole project will convert about 15 million books at a cost of $150 million, or about $10 per book.
Plus, the Library of Congress and a group of international libraries from the United States, Canada, Egypt, China and the Netherlands announced a plan to create a publicly available digital archive of 1 million books on the Internet. The group said it planned to have 70,000 volumes online by next April.
As long as I am excited about Google I want to let you know that Google has been my home page for over seven years. Well, last week I changed my home page. Don't get worried, it is still Google but it is their new Google Suggest. It suggests queries as you type what you are looking for into the search box. By offering more refined searches up front, Google Suggest can make your searching more convenient and efficient, because it eliminates the need to type the entire text of a query.
In addition, the service can connect you with new query suggestions that are useful, intriguing and fun. My guess is that in a few years this might be the main Google search engine.
While I am on the topic of Google, I have to tell you about the new version of Firefox 1.0. Firefox isn't just for alpha geeks anymore. As of last week over 10 MILLION people have downloaded Firefox and installed it as their browser.
I just found out the newest version has a neat feature where you can click the small triangle next to the bottom of the default "G" on the left of the Google search box and you will be able to use other search engines.
The lending of e-books to patrons appears to be a natural extension of the classical role of libraries: physical book lending. Libraries sought also to extend their archival functions to e-books. But librarians failed to grasp the essential and substantive differences between the two formats. E-books can be easily, stealthily, and cheaply copied, for instance. The source of the e-book - scanned printed titles, or converted digital files - is immaterial and irrelevant. The minute a title becomes an e-book, copyright violations are a real and present danger. Moreover, e-books are not a tangible product. "Lending" an e-book - is tantamount to copying an e-book. In other words, e-books are not books at all. They are software products. Libraries have pioneered digital collections (as they have other information technologies throughout history) and are still the main promoters of e-publishing. Solutions are, appropriately, being borrowed from the software industry. NetLibrary has lately granted multiple user licences to a university library system. Such licences allow for unlimited access and are priced according to the number of the library's patrons, or the number of its reading devices and terminals. Another possibility is to implement the shareware model - a trial period followed by a purchase option or an expiration, a-la Rosetta's expiring e-book.
Distributor Baker & Taylor have unveiled at the recent ALA a prototype e-book distribution system jointly developed by ibooks and Digital Owl. It will be sold to libraries by B&T's Informata division and Reciprocal.
The annual subscription for use of the digital library comprises "a catalog of digital content, brandable pages and web based tools for each participating library to customize for their patrons. Patrons of participating libraries will then be able to browse digital content online, or download and check out the content they are most interested in. Content may be checked out for an extended period of time set by each library, including checking out eBooks from home." Free Internet access and e-book reading devices in libraries notwithstanding - the Internet, unless harnessed and integrated by libraries, threatens their very existence by depriving them of patrons. Libraries, in turn, threaten the budding software industry we, misleadingly, call "e-publishing".
There are major operational and philosophical differences between physical and virtual libraries. Physical libraries enjoy great advantages, not the least being their habit-forming head start (2,500 years of first mover advantage). Libraries have catered to users' reference needs in reference centres for centuries (and, lately, through Selective Dissemination of Information, or SDI). "Progress" may yet consist of the assimilation of hi-tech gadgets by lo-tech libraries.
Google Brings Millions of Hard-to-Find Library Books to Your Fingertips
Millions of hard-to-find books from five major libraries will soon be a lot easier to access: Google has made plans to scan and digitize them, making the books available on their widely used Internet search engine.
Google's latest endeavor is a large step beyond previous attempts to scan books so they can be read online (Google, Amazon.com and other smaller sites have offered glimpses of books and libraries online before). What makes this initiative so different is the sheer breadth of material that Google plans to cover.
Five libraries will be involved in the project in various stages:
* New York public library: Allowing Google a small portion of books no longer covered by copyright.
* Harvard University library: Is contributing a limited 40,000 volumes to guage how well the process works.
* Stanford University library: Will submit its entire collection to Google's scanners.
* Michigan University library: Will also submit its entire collection.
* Oxford University library: Contributing all its books published before 1901
To get an idea of just how large a project Google is taking on, consider that Michigan's library alone contains 7 million volumes, which is about 132 miles of books, while Harvard's library contains 15 million. Google users will only be able to view bibliographies and other brief excerpts from the copyrighted books scanned from the libraries, while works no longer covered by copyrights will be completely available to the online public.
USA Today December 14, 2004
New York Times December 14, 2004
Dr. Mercola's Comment:
Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, have long vowed to make all of the world's information accessible to anyone with a Web browser. Now that vow will come closer to being implemented as Google has made an agreement with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.
Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library are some of the U.S. institutions that will be involved. The whole project will convert about 15 million books at a cost of $150 million, or about $10 per book.
Plus, the Library of Congress and a group of international libraries from the United States, Canada, Egypt, China and the Netherlands announced a plan to create a publicly available digital archive of 1 million books on the Internet. The group said it planned to have 70,000 volumes online by next April.
As long as I am excited about Google I want to let you know that Google has been my home page for over seven years. Well, last week I changed my home page. Don't get worried, it is still Google but it is their new Google Suggest. It suggests queries as you type what you are looking for into the search box. By offering more refined searches up front, Google Suggest can make your searching more convenient and efficient, because it eliminates the need to type the entire text of a query.
In addition, the service can connect you with new query suggestions that are useful, intriguing and fun. My guess is that in a few years this might be the main Google search engine.
While I am on the topic of Google, I have to tell you about the new version of Firefox 1.0. Firefox isn't just for alpha geeks anymore. As of last week over 10 MILLION people have downloaded Firefox and installed it as their browser.
I just found out the newest version has a neat feature where you can click the small triangle next to the bottom of the default "G" on the left of the Google search box and you will be able to use other search engines.
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