In some ways, yes! But don't expect anything anytime soon! I don't understand why the LC is getting Google's help for creating standards, though, since the LC is full of, well, librarians, and they're the ones who are supposed to be responsible for the organization of information. I suppose it depends exactly on what sort of standards they're talking about. It will be interesting to see how they plan on digitizing cultural artifacts that don't come in photo or book form. Especially items from cultures with oral traditions. What a headache!
"The World Digital Library is an attempt to go beyond Europe and the Americas...into cultures where the majority of the world is,"
And yet since it's a digital library, the 'majority of the world' won't be able to use it. Not that it isn't a great idea, or that they should do it differently. I just enjoyed the irony.
My understanding was that Google was just going to donate some money to it. Although it certainly wouldn't hurt to get a few of their engineers to help ensure an ideal system.
I do give it to Google - they started the whole thing with their project to digitize all books. Go Google!
I am impressed with grandiose projects like that. It just seem like we do those anymore - they're not practical I suppose. If the Library of Congress did build a true World Digital Library it would be the modern equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. And THAT would be awesome!
it is ironic under the present circumstances. 10 or 20 years from now? probably not.
go grandiose projects. we should really invest some money and start building grandiose projects around the US to showcase our coolness! or maybe on the moon. don't just go there. go there and build something!
But what exactly is their ultimate goal? Why are they suddenly behind everything that has to do with information? Why do they think they can get away with digitizing copyrighted works and offering authors the right to opt out, when copyright law doesn't work that way? In short, professional librarianism is divided on the whole Google issue, and there is some trepidation about what they're actually after. It certainly isn't through the goodness of its corporate heart, right? Because it is a corporation.
Oh, and LC has its own search engine that works pretty well. If anyone has the chance, check out American Memory, there are some neat projects there, although they aren't all hosted by LC and the quality varies depending on which institution certain collections belong to.
it seems to me google lives off its ability to serve as the prime location for information. you digitize books and offer them up for searching and now you can sell related advertising there too. and you continue to dominate the space as the premier provider of information. it's a win-win combination - the average user gets great access to information and services and google makes money by placing relevant ads near the provided information.
now, of course the problem comes in for copyright holders. still, solutions are many. the copyright holders could allow users to search through their books and read the few pages around the relevant page(s). the user doesn't get access to the material in any sensible way, but they do get to easily find out where relevant material was recorded. and it's pretty much all "valid" and "verified" content. that would solve the major problem with the web right now - lots of information with little verifiable content.
11 Comments:
At 8:50 AM,
nell said…
In some ways, yes! But don't expect anything anytime soon! I don't understand why the LC is getting Google's help for creating standards, though, since the LC is full of, well, librarians, and they're the ones who are supposed to be responsible for the organization of information. I suppose it depends exactly on what sort of standards they're talking about. It will be interesting to see how they plan on digitizing cultural artifacts that don't come in photo or book form. Especially items from cultures with oral traditions. What a headache!
At 12:09 PM,
Rama said…
maybe google is going to maintain the search engine for the library? I don't know how these things work...
Hey, great job opp for you though, eh?
At 3:17 PM,
Anonymous said…
"The World Digital Library is an attempt to go beyond Europe and the Americas...into cultures where the majority of the world is,"
And yet since it's a digital library, the 'majority of the world' won't be able to use it. Not that it isn't a great idea, or that they should do it differently. I just enjoyed the irony.
E.
At 9:27 PM,
z said…
My understanding was that Google was just going to donate some money to it. Although it certainly wouldn't hurt to get a few of their engineers to help ensure an ideal system.
I do give it to Google - they started the whole thing with their project to digitize all books. Go Google!
I am impressed with grandiose projects like that. It just seem like we do those anymore - they're not practical I suppose. If the Library of Congress did build a true World Digital Library it would be the modern equivalent of the Library of Alexandria. And THAT would be awesome!
At 9:40 PM,
z said…
it is ironic under the present circumstances. 10 or 20 years from now? probably not.
go grandiose projects. we should really invest some money and start building grandiose projects around the US to showcase our coolness! or maybe on the moon. don't just go there. go there and build something!
At 9:48 PM,
nell said…
But what exactly is their ultimate goal? Why are they suddenly behind everything that has to do with information? Why do they think they can get away with digitizing copyrighted works and offering authors the right to opt out, when copyright law doesn't work that way? In short, professional librarianism is divided on the whole Google issue, and there is some trepidation about what they're actually after. It certainly isn't through the goodness of its corporate heart, right? Because it is a corporation.
At 9:50 PM,
nell said…
Oh, and LC has its own search engine that works pretty well. If anyone has the chance, check out American Memory, there are some neat projects there, although they aren't all hosted by LC and the quality varies depending on which institution certain collections belong to.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/
At 4:21 AM,
z said…
it seems to me google lives off its ability to serve as the prime location for information. you digitize books and offer them up for searching and now you can sell related advertising there too. and you continue to dominate the space as the premier provider of information. it's a win-win combination - the average user gets great access to information and services and google makes money by placing relevant ads near the provided information.
At 4:25 AM,
z said…
now, of course the problem comes in for copyright holders. still, solutions are many. the copyright holders could allow users to search through their books and read the few pages around the relevant page(s). the user doesn't get access to the material in any sensible way, but they do get to easily find out where relevant material was recorded. and it's pretty much all "valid" and "verified" content. that would solve the major problem with the web right now - lots of information with little verifiable content.
At 4:26 AM,
z said…
what do you think nellie? do you have any reservations about scanning books in?
At 11:07 AM,
nell said…
yes, but it's hard to explain. plus i'm at work. so this is my reminder to think about it more later...
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