In a press release dated January 13, OCLC announced the creation of a Review Board to advise OCLC on the principles and best practices for sharing library data. At the same time, the proposed records policy effective date has been put off until the third quarter of 2009. Read the rest of this entry »
One of the most surprising, even shocking, features of the Google-AAP-Authors Guild Settlement is how hard it is on libraries. Given that Google Book Search could not have gotten off the ground without the cooperation of various university libraries, it is particularly disheartening that the proposed settlement treats them with such an iron fist at the same time as it expects them to foot much of the bill through subscriptions. It will be interesting to see how many libraries continue as partners, given Google’s bait-and-switch. Read the rest of this entry »
Marjorie Kehe at the Christian Science Monitor reminds us of the importance of libraries, especially in tough times.
New York Law School professor James Grimmelman has written an impressive, even-handed blogpost about the Google-AAP-Authors Guild settlement in which he lays out five principles to guide the court and the public. He closes with fourteen “recommendations” to the court:
The Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and the American Library Association (ALA) have released a useful 22-page summary of the key points of the Settlement entitled “A Guide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement” and written by Jonathan Band, JD. From the ARL website:
The guide is designed to help the library community better understand the terms and conditions of the recent settlement agreement between Google, the Authors Guild, and the Association of American Publishers concerning Google’s scanning of copyrighted works. … The guide outlines and simplifies the settlement’s provisions, with special emphasis on the provisions that apply directly to libraries.
The guide doesn’t evaluate, criticize, or take a stand toward the Settlement, but it is a thoughtful and careful guide.
Through all the changes in 2008 libraries and other cultural institutions continue to contribute their works to universally accessible open collections. Fifty one new institutions have joined the ranks of our community! Read the rest of this entry »
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