There has been a lot of discussion in the library world about the new Google Print. The collaboration of Google with four top tier research libraries has left librarians wary for a few reasons. First, and probably most obvious, is the crossing of libraries into a corporate environment. Fundamentally libraries exist to provide information to all people - and it can be argued that Google Print and Google Scholar will do just that but, with what price to pay? One aspect of concern is our good friend the USA PATRIOT ACT. This act requires libraries to turn over information to the federal government regarding what has been searched for or checked out by a given patron, if requested. This also forbids the library from disclosing information about what the FBI has asked for or what patrons (if any) are being investigated. Librarians have responded in a number of ways including posting signs and shredding circulation records. With Google Print though, as libraries become searchable across the globe, it seems necessary to realize that corporations will probably be less protective of their information seekers than the library. (Check out more about this at www.google-watch.com)
There are also libraries that plan to include media that is protected by copyright in Google. The user will then be able to see a few sentences of the source along with a link that can tell him or her where to buy the book OR Google will allow the user to pay for use of the electronic version. A response to this problem was put well by a fellow PLG-er in an email asking if it will be an electronic library or an electronic bookstore and saying: “If it's an electronic library, then a host of normative values that are part of the library profession, such as privacy, equity of access, cost sharing, and social responsibility in general, are in play. If it turns out to be more like a bookstore, then those values, the things that make libraries libraries, will be a part of the past.”
Another question comes up when talking about the way these new resources will be displayed. Google, being the good corporation it is, will find a way to advertise on these Google Print pages. This seems to blur the lines between corporate profit and the public sphere of human thought embodied by libraries. As libraries become twisted up with corporate profit, it may become problematic as culture becomes held-up by corporate interests.
Don’t get me wrong though, I see the advantages of being able to access major (and not so major) library collections with the ease and familiarity that is Google. I assume most people do. I just think we need to be aware of the fact that this is not a library and the motives of Google are most likely far from the motives of a librarian.
Whew.
