Why Google deserves fruit baskets, not brickbats
Cory Doctorow, a scifi author I have blogged in the past, has written a superb (IMHO) analysis of why the Google Print library book scanning project is a GOOD thing for authors and publishers, and why they should be supporting it, promoting and embracing it, instead of suing Google. The item is posted on the well-known Boing Boing blog.
Doctorow goes way beyond the issue of the Google library program, however, and near the end of this admittedly lengthy post, talks about the future of books and reading in this multimedia age. Some of what he is saying to authors and publishers can be applied with equal force to libraries, even though we may not like it (nor perhaps agree with it). This, for example:
Doctorow goes way beyond the issue of the Google library program, however, and near the end of this admittedly lengthy post, talks about the future of books and reading in this multimedia age. Some of what he is saying to authors and publishers can be applied with equal force to libraries, even though we may not like it (nor perhaps agree with it). This, for example:
We need to stop telling people that the Internet isn't as good as books. It makes us look like whiny jerks. We need to stop telling people that they have a moral duty to read. It makes us look like imperious jerks.
We need to act like a money-making industry and spare some attention for what our customers demand: books that are no more clicks away than web-pages.
posted by Will at
2:20 PM
1 Comments:
I agree that Google deserves fruit baskets, and that the publishing industry is cutting off its nose to spite its face. I like the question he raises: should reading be considered a "moral duty", and if so, does it help librarians to portray it as such? I'd probably answer no to both questions, but with some hesitation.
By
Chris, at 4:33 PM
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