The Shifted Librarian: Hey, Your Library's Books Are in My Google. No, Your Google Is in My Library Books.

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Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Hey, Your Library's Books Are in My Google. No, Your Google Is in My Library Books.

So the big news is about Google and libraries. I don't feel the need to comment on this right now, as you can find plenty of other places for that. However, here are a few angles I haven't seen discussed elsewhere in the library blogosphere.

Libraries and the Internet

"More broadly, the Internet can profoundly improve the relationship between libraries and society. For example, there are two major libraries in my town -- a college library, and a public library. My library card works in both places. I used to favor the college library, because there was open WiFi access there -- which meant, among other things, that I could use LibraryLookup from my laptop to find books in the stacks. Recently, though, the college shut down its open access point. And from an IT administrator's point of view, I can understand why. Not long after, the public library installed an open access point. So now it's my favorite spot, and lately I notice other mobile professionals congregating there too." [Jon Udell's Weblog
(Click over to read Jon's story about getting locked in the library, too!)

"A quick calculation using the figures above suggests an average scan rate of 3200 volumes per day (assuming 365 days/year for 6 years) at the University of Michigan site alone." [Tito Sierra on the WEB4LIB mailing list]

"An even quicker calculation shows that they will need to digitize 2.25 books _a_minute_, 24 hours/day, 365 days/year to digitize 7 million volumes in six years." [Roy Tennant on the WEB4LIB mailing list]

It's times like this when I wish Karen Coyle had a blog.

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» Book Links from Cox Crow
I was off-line yesterday because of a Very Important Thing: the Big Sister played a lamb in the St. John's Playgroup's Christmas pageant. In the intervening space, Google's doing some things with books [via Jon Udell and Jenny Levine]. Jon pointed o... [Read More]

Tracked on December 15, 2004 11:59 AM

» Google and Harvard Libraries Announce Digitization Project from j's scratchpad
John Battelle writes about an effort of Google and a number of large libraries, including some of Harvard's, to digitize materials and provide access to them. [Read More]

Tracked on December 15, 2004 02:42 PM

» Blogosphere response to Google's library deal from Regional: New York
As might be expected, Google's decision to digitize the library holdings of several major research institutions (including the holdings of the New York Public Library) has generated a lot of buzz and speculation in the blogosphere. Props to The Shifted... [Read More]

Tracked on December 15, 2004 03:19 PM

» Tracking the Numbers on Google's Library Scan from Notes from the Metaverse
Whenever there's hot library-related news, I love to head over to The Shifted Librarian , since Jenny's always got an interesting take on things (that, and she used to use a Radio theme exactly like mine). [Read More]

Tracked on December 18, 2004 05:41 PM

» eContent Search from Bruce Landon's Weblog for Students
Hey, Your Library's Books Are in My Google. [Read More]

Tracked on December 31, 2004 12:45 AM