Paul Courant is the University Librarian at the University of Michigan as well as a professor of economics. And he now has a blog. He leads off with a response to critics (including Brewster Kahle and Siva Vaidhyanathan) of Michigan’s book digitization partnership with Google. Siva responds back on Googlization of Everything. Great to see a university librarian entering the public debate in this way.
if:book
A Project of the Institute for the Future of the Book
As long as it keeps the print collections Michigan has given nothing to Google while Google has given us a free bibliographical utility. The screen access is a discovery and search mechanism just like the old card catalog. The print collections are the mastering and back-up resources for these simulations. The print books will continue in this role long after enthusiasm for key word parsing across print collections has proven of relatively small value and relatively high inefficiency across agendas of learning and advanced reading skills.
oh wow, thanks for the tip! i’ve been waiting for
a long time to give umichigan a piece of my mind!
-bowerbird
p.s. well, actually, i didn’t wait. but still…
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-09-26,1
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-09-27,6
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-09-28,5
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-09-29,5
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-10-02,6
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-10-03,2
> http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2006&post=2006-12-22,1