Electronic Publishing Services (EPS) has launched an online debate on this question: Google and the Book Publishers: Is the Age of Search bringing exciting new opportunities for publishers, or is it the beginning of the end? Unlike most other EPS initiatives, this one is OA. The first contribution (and so far, the only one) is from Adam Hodgkin, founder of xrefer. I won't excerpt all coming contributions, but I'll kick things off by excerpting Adam's:
Google Print is a brilliant vision of how the world of books can bloom and enrich our lives in the 21st century, and Google has the commitment, the technology platform and perhaps the cash to make it happen....This is a very big picture: the Google vision is that ALL printed literature should be searchable on the web and available for strictly limited inspection and for unlimited consultation and free reading in the case of out of copyright books. All books should be searchable in this system, but many of them will not be at all readable through Google Print. Free reading will be available for out of copyright books and in the case of books which the author and publisher wish to see freely available....The Google Print vision is not necessarily a vision of Open Access, it is a programme for improved access. The web is being used as an index and a guide to available literature. We may also hope that Google (and its competitors) will develop sufficiently strong advertising revenues, to be shared with publishers and authors, so that more in-copyright titles will become available for free (electronic, advertiser supported) reading, but that is another matter and the subject of another discussion between Google and the publishers and rights holders. Whether Google Print will be a massive jolt in the direction of Open Access mainly depends on the extent to which advertising can become a primary source of revenue for published materials. This is an interesting but subsidiary question the answer to which we will find out in due course....The pronouncements of official spokespersons of the publishing industry put me in mind of medieval monks declaiming “Of course books should remain chained: they are precious, too valuable to be let loose, the library is the best place to read a book, and Canon Law says that they should remain in the library”....The initial reaction of many librarians has been much more welcoming and positive, which is perplexing when you think about it, because it would seem that the traditional role of the librarian is much more threatened by Google Print than is the publisher....These are ‘red line’ issues, but I have not mentioned the publishers putative Maginot line – our ultimate deterrent: a prohibition on scanning. For it is simply that a Maginot line: it may deter Google Print for Libraries, but it is a fixed line of defence with no value in the mobile action and strategy of a web economy....Google Print will work and it will be good for authors, publishers, readers, and even for librarians but as we noted the librarians ‘got’ the web a long time ago. They know that there will be even more need for librarians if the web becomes our primary library. Ditto for publishers. At least it will mean that we no longer have the mildly disagreeable task of putting books ‘out of print’. Google Print can look after the long tail, whilst we concentrate on growing a new one.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/06/2005 01:30:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
