[Ecommerce] May Sue Coleman: Google Library Project: Plan Encourages Free Exchange of Ideas, Spirit of Progress

[Manon Ress]

Google Library Project: Plan Encourages Free Exchange of Ideas,
Spirit of Progress

http://www.rednova.com/news/technology/289089/
google_library_project_plan_encourages_free_exchange_of_ideas_spirit/
index.html?source=r_technology

By Mary Sue Coleman Washington Post

Some authors and publishers have cried foul regarding Google's
digital library initiative, sparking debate about intellectual
property rights in an online age. Beyond the specific legal
challenges emerging in the wake of such a sea change, there are
deeply important public policy issues at stake. We must not lose
sight of the transformative nature of Google's plan or the public
good that can come from it.

Throughout history, most of the world's printed knowledge has been
created, preserved and used only by society's elites -- those for
whom education and power meant access to the great research
libraries. Now, groundbreaking tools for mass digitization are poised
to change that paradigm. We believe the result can be a widening of
human conversation comparable to the emergence of mass literacy itself.

Google plans to make its index searchable to every person in the
world who enjoys access to the Internet. For those works that remain
in copyright, a search will reveal brief excerpts along with
information about how to buy the work or borrow it from a public
library. Searches of work in the public domain will yield access to
complete texts online.

Imagine what this means for scholars and the general public, who,
until now, might have discovered only a fraction of the material
written on a subject. Or picture a small, impoverished school -- in
America or anywhere in the world -- that does not have access to a
substantial library but does have an Internet connection.

This enormous shift is already upon us. Students coming to my campus
today belong to the Net Generation. By the time they were in middle
school, the Internet was a part of their daily lives. As we watch the
way our students search for and use information, this much is clear:
If information is not digitized, it will not be found.

Libraries and educational institutions are the only entities whose
mission is to preserve knowledge through the centuries. It is a
crucial role, one outside the interest of corporate entities and
separate from the whims of the market. If libraries do not archive
and curate, there is substantial risk that entire bodies of work will
be lost.

Universities and the knowledge they offer should be accessible by all.

We must continue to ensure access to the vast intellectual
opportunity and knowledge we generate and preserve. The digitization
of information is a profound gesture that holds open our doors.
Limiting access to information is tantamount to limiting the
opportunities of our citizens.

Criticism of the Google library project revolves around questions of
intellectual property. Universities are no strangers to the
responsible management of complex copyright, permission and security
issues; we deal with them every day in our classrooms, libraries,
laboratories and performance halls. We will continue to work within
the current criteria for fair use as we move ahead with digitization.

But we believe deeply that this endeavor exemplifies the spirit under
which our nation's copyright law was developed: to encourage the free
exchange of ideas in the service of innovation and societal progress.
The protections of copyright are designed to balance the rights of
the creator with the rights of the public. At its core is the most
important principle of all: to facilitate the sharing of knowledge,
not to stifle such exchange. No one believed more fervently in the
diffusion of knowledge than Thomas Jefferson, who resurrected the
Library of Congress, using his own books, after its predecessor was
destroyed by fire. We must continue to heed his message:

"And it cannot be but that each generation succeeding to the
knowledge acquired by all those who preceded it, adding to it their
own acquisitions and discoveries, and handing the mass down for
successive and constant accumulation, must advance the knowledge and
well-being of mankind, not infinitely, as some have said, but
indefinitely, and to a term which no one can fix and foresee."

I worry that we are unnecessarily fearful of a world where our
libraries can be widely accessed and that our fear will strangle the
exchange of ideas so critical to our Founders. As these technologies
are developed, our policies must help ensure that people can find
information and that printed works are preserved for future generations.

Mary Sue Coleman is president of the University of Michigan, whose
library is one of five that have partnered with Google on its
digitization project.


Source: Deseret News (Salt Lake City)




************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

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