"The nation’s colleges and universities should support Google’s controversial project to digitize great libraries and offer books online," writes Richard Ekman, president of the Council of Independent Colleges, in an opinion article for The Washington Post. "It has the potential to do a lot of good for higher education in this country."
Google’s endeavor has drawn criticism from publishers, who have argued that the book-scanning project amounts to a violation of copyright law. But Mr. Ekman, who serves on the advisory boards of two university presses, argues that "those of us who are researchers and readers of books and articles ought to be disturbed by the loss of trust among publishers and libraries, which a decade ago embraced technological innovation and collaboration."
Mr. Ekman takes an optimistic view of the digitization project’s impact on scholarship:
Geography will not hinder a student’s quest to find relevant material. Libraries can help to revive interest in underused books. And sales of books would probably increase as a result.
—Brock Read
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