I’m listening and watching along with the EDUCAUSE online presentation from the Universities of Michigan and Oxford and their participation in Google Print.
Presenters:
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John P. Wilkin
Associate University Librarian
Library Information Technology and Technical and Access Services
University of Michigan
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Reginald Carr
Director of University Library Services and Bodley’s Librarian
University of Oxford
Google Print is old news by now, but it’s interesting to get their reports on it.
Readers should take a look at U of Michigan’s Making of America project that does a lot (more, in some areas) of what Google is looking to do with Google Print.
Interesting questions to Wilkin (paraphrased):
- Q: Why will U Mich be maintaining their own digital copy of these materials separate from Google’s?
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A: The needs of the university are more specific and detailed than what Google can or likely will address. Example: scholarship demands permanence, electronic citations must be made durable.
- Q: Will JSTOR titles be digitized?
- A: For those JSTOR titles in our collection, yes they will be digitized. But, one difference that should be noted is that article level access and metadata will likely not be available in Google Print
Those questions interest me because they represent some of the differences between Google’s needs and libraries’ needs. I look forward to what Google is doing, but I worry that some outside the library community might mistake or underestimate the value of libraries in a Google Print world.
An archive of the presentations will be available at the EDUCAUSE Live website later today.