The OCLC-Google Book Search deal (The Googlization of Everything)

Nonprofit Library Group Will Share Book Records With Google
In an effort to increase the visibility of librariesâ holdings on the Web, Google and OCLCâformerly known as the Online Computer Library Centerâhave agreed to swap data. Under the arrangement, OCLC member-libraries that have made their holdings available via Google Book Search will share their bibliographic records with Google. And Google Book Search, which contains the digitized text of more than one million books, will provide links to WorldCat, the worldâs largest bibliographic database. It is run by OCLC, a nonprofit group that promotes technology in libraries.

Other groups, too, are trying to promote libraries holdings on the Web, including Open Library and LibraryThing. -- Andrea L. Foster

Filed under: Is Google a Library?
Posted by Siva Vaidhyanathan, May 22, 2008 10:27 AM

Comments (1)

A Librarian on May 26, 2008 3:43 AM:

One interesting point concerning the deal is that OCLC is "encouraging" individual libraries to share only abbreviated catalog records for the library's materials in Google Books. For example, if there is a subject for a digitized book such as "United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865--African Americans--Pictorial works" all they are sharing (through OAI-PMH) is "United States," which is practically useless. Or, if something is written by "Johnson, D. C. (David Carlton), 1936-", all they are sharing is "Johnson, D. C." This is done so that if someone wants to search the complete information, they must go to OCLC, and OCLC doesn't want competition.

While I understand this: if individual libraries share all of their information, what is the need for OCLC? But, corporate interests go only so far, and libraries are all about sharing. Besides, it's the libraries who made these records, not OCLC.

This is an unfortunate practice that should be reconsidered.

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Siva Vaidhyanathan

This blog, the result of a collaboration between myself and the Institute for the Future of the Book, is dedicated to exploring the process of writing a critical interpretation of the actions and intentions behind the cultural behemoth that is Google, Inc. The book will answer three key questions: What does the world look like through the lens of Google?; How is Google's ubiquity affecting the production and dissemination of knowledge?; and how has the corporation altered the rules and practices that govern other companies, institutions, and states? [more]

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