{"id":653454,"date":"2013-04-19T16:12:22","date_gmt":"2013-04-19T20:12:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=228043"},"modified":"2013-04-19T16:12:22","modified_gmt":"2013-04-19T20:12:22","slug":"americas-digital-library-launches-without-a-peep-from-google","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/653454","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Digital Library launches \u2014 without a peep from Google"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Digital Public Library of America opened shop this week, offering access to a rich repository of books, photos and more. The collection, drawn from libraries and archives across the country, also contains rare historical footage like Kentucky women marching for the vote and news clips of civil rights Freedom Riders.<\/span><\/p>\n

The DPLA <\/a>also offers a dynamic map, a timeline of exhibitions and app-building tools<\/a> to build up the cultural collection even further.<\/p>\n

Is there anything the DPLA doesn\u2019t have? Well, we could start with the 20 million or so digital books that Google has scanned at hundreds of libraries in the last decade. This collection \u2014 which is much larger than the 2.4 million records at the DPLA \u2014 has gone unmentioned in the course \"Tomof the new library\u2019s launch this week. Instead, Google\u2019s trove is gathering digital dust as a ceaseless copyright case<\/a> between the company and the Authors Guild grinds on.<\/p>\n

This is a shame. While the DPLA is a beautiful and important endeavor, it also feels woefully incomplete. Its library collection does\u2019t include institutions like Stanford and Michigan (alma mater of Google CEO Larry Page), and is drawn from only six states<\/a> \u2014 this can hardly be described as \u201cof America.\u201d More seriously, the holes in the DPLA\u2019s catalog show how a once-unified effort to digitize the country\u2019s knowledge has become a patchwork affair.<\/p>\n

As I described in Battle for the Books<\/a>, Harvard librarian Robert Darnton not only pulled the university out of its one-time partnership with Google, but also led an intellectual campaign<\/a> to stop the company\u2019s scanning plans.\u00a0Darnton\u2019s actions not only drove legal opposition to a proposed settlement, but also produced lasting resentment within the librarian community \u2014 some of whom regard Darnton as a spoilsport and a demagogue.<\/p>\n

The result is that the U.S. now has multiple, unconnected repositories that represent a digital fracturing of its culture heritage. It\u2019s worth noting that DPLA also comes in addition to the Internet Archive, a long-time pioneer in digital scanning (I found the image at right by searching the DPLA; the results led me to a Connecticut library and then the Internet Archive<\/a>).<\/p>\n

This is in part due to copyright issues. While Google has made a strong case that its scanning activities are fair use, authors fear they will lose control over their works \u2014 and many people oppose granting Google or any other private company a role in the country\u2019s library systems.<\/p>\n

For now, the DPLA, which is funded<\/a> by governments and foundations, is not in discussion with Google Books. It has, however, been talking to the Hathi Trust<\/a>, a network of university libraries that have connected their digital collections (they obtained the collection as part of the agreement under which Google scanned their books).<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just getting started and are in talks with many large content hubs; yes, we have spoken to HathiTrust and can imagine a very complimentary collaboration with them.\u201d wrote Executive Director Dan Cohen.<\/p>\n

Google did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

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