From Gutenberg to Google

Five views on the search-engine company's project to digitize library books

Forum: Join an online discussion about the impact on publishing and scholarship of Google's plans to scan millions of books and make the full texts part of its popular search index. Printer friendly E-mail article Subscribe Order reprints

By JEFFREY R. YOUNG

If you talk to librarians or academic publishers, or attend one of their meetings, you will very likely get an earful about Google. It's been nearly six months since the company announced that it would work with five of the world's largest libraries in an effort to scan millions of books and make the full texts part of its popular search index (The Chronicle, January 7). But some librarians and publishers say they are still in the early stages of understanding what the project's impact might be on their fields, and on scholarship in general. The Chronicle asked five key players to comment on the project and its meaning.

• 'MARGINAL UTILITY': Books may eventually be reduced to formats in which they have virtually no meaning, worries Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association.
• END RESULT: The digitization project will not threaten the library's central role in connecting users with information, says John P. Wilkin, of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.
• STRESSING THE POSITIVE: Google hopes to add even more books to its digitized collection, from publishers as well as from libraries, says Adam M. Smith, a senior business-product manager at the company.
• STRETCHING 'FAIR USE': Google should address some questions about the rights of authors and publishers, according to Peter Givler, executive director of the Association of American University Presses.
• A MATTER OF CONTINENTAL HERITAGE: The effort to get European librarians to join in creating a large-scale digital library of their own is under way, reports Jean-Noël Jeanneney, the president of the National Library of France.