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My Talk on Open Source Radio

(From a show that happened today, 12-5-05.)

The show began with an intro by Christopher Lydon; the lede was, seems like a boon, until we consider the perils of privatization… a tantalizing opening.

Then came a Google rep to present what Google Book Search does: how carefully they digitize (which I do not doubt). Siva then stepped in to say that the most interesting thing about this project was how it populates the web with important content… but then brought up the issues with Google being a new company that operates in secret. He very adeptly countered a reference to the Library of Alexandria by pointing out that the Library is no more and its content since gone. He also pointed out that Google is not in the business of organizing or evaluating information.

Google claimed its arrangements with the “Big Five” are not exclusive, though I’d like to see the agreements to know that. But Siva pointed out that Google’s software is proprietary. Google is right that the libraries hadn’t come anywhere near the scale of digitization that Google proposes. That is certainly true with the Open Content Alliance. Compare OCA and Google Book Search.

Then I stepped in to talk about libraries leveraging a world of online books… others spoke… it was fun.

The two big messages I have so I can get this posted, for those of you new to Free Range Librarian:

1. Google Book Search is big, it’s interesting, it’s fascinating, but as I have posted before (see this month’s posts in particular) it raises troublesome questions. It’s also not the only fish in the sea: be sure to look at Gary Price’s comments about A9, Open Content Alliance, and other projects.

2. If you haven’t tried them before, take a look at RedLightGreen and Open Worldcat. You can use these library-based search engines to quickly find books in your local library. Then ask yourself why Google Book Search doesn’t include these great tools on its results pages!

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This was written by K.G. Schneider. Posted on Monday, December 5, 2005, at 3:58 pm. Filed under Hot Tech. Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.