Siva Vaidhyanathan. (2005) The Googlization of everything and the future of copyright.

Summary

Vaidhyanathan explains the history of the Google Books project along with the legal ramifications and its relation to copyright law.

What I learned

The Google Books project and the ensuing legal battles could have a much wider effect than I had previously thought. This article highlighted many of the ways in which this project could make fundamental changes in copyright in this country, often not in a good way. As he mentions in the conclusion, this could have significant ripple effects in how information is shared on the internet generally, not just in relation to digitized print materials.

What I am taking away

Reading this article after the second Google Books settlement was rejected in court gives me the impression that, in the six years since publication of the article, more of the world is worried about this project than just Mr. Vaidhyanathan. It is also interesting to see that he was able to foresee many of the issues surrounding this project.

Discussion question

How could a similar project happen in a way that doesn't harm copyright but still provides access to materials?

Coombs, K. A. (2005) Protecting user privacy in the age of digital libraries. Computers in Libraries, 25:6. 16-20.

Summary

This article is an account of one librarian's and one library's effort to ensure its users' privacy. Coombs works at the SUNY Courtland library, and she systematically addressed the user data each of their systems was storing and determined what should be kept and what should be discarded.

What I learned

I think the most interesting part of the article is the balance libraries have to strike between maintaining user privacy but also obtaining the data and statistics to help in collection development, strategic planning, etc. Having the demographics and other data about the library's users helps the library to tailor its services and better spend its money, but that same data is also often a privacy concern, especially in a post-USA-PATRIOT-Act world.

What I am taking away

It's about balance! And as much as I like data, the users' privacy and sense of privacy is more important.

Discussion question

Are there any systems that store data that she forgot about? Or that have developed since the article was written in 2005?