Google Plans to Expand Book-Scanning PartnershipsMarissa Mayer, vice president for search products and user experience at Google, says the company will expand its Book Search project, which has scanned more than a million books in conjunction with several college libraries, among other institutions.
Ms. Mayer talked about the future of the project, and responded to criticisms of it, in a recent Chronicle podcast. Some authors and publishers have sued Google, claiming that the company violates their copyrights, although it does not display the full text of copyrighted works.
The Book Search project will eventually involving scanning more than books, she suggests. "Google's mission is to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful," Ms. Mayer says. "Our CEO likes to stress that when we said "all," we really meant all. So while we might prioritize what order we're doing things in, we really do think it's valuable to digitize and provide all the world's information online." —Jeffrey R. Young
Here is a link to the recording of Meyer's interview (why do people refer to all digital recordings as "podcasts?")
The big new thing here is that Mayer claims that book preservation is a core goal of Google Book Search. I wonder when that came into the mix If preservation is the key here, that raises all kinds of questions over format, access, quality, etc.
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As an archivist, I continue to take issue with Google's position that books should be a higher priority than special collections material. After all, most of the books Google's scanning can be found in multiple libraries. And often multiple copies are at the same library. If you spill a cup of coffee on "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," the library can just by another copy.
Not so with special collections, which are normally considered stronger candidates for digitization because of their scarcity, rarity, and fragility.