This Week in LIS - 18 September 2009

Headline of the Week: The Future: What Google Is Really Up To

Each summer LIS spends a day discussing, planning, and visioning our work for the coming year. The tangible results of this work take their form in our objectives which spell out specific initiatives we plan to focus on for the coming academic year. This past summer, we set our focus a little further in the future, as we brainstormed what it would be like to design our services from scratch knowing what we know now about libraries, technology, and how information is consumed. While some aspects of our service would appear similar to how it is in current reality, we discussed many things that would look very different from how they do today.

With the rate of change in our profession clipping along quite quickly, it becomes more important for us as an organization to observe and plan for significant disruption in our assumptions about our work. There is (as with just about everything else) plenty of data on what is ‘next.’ We only need to apply it to ourselves with a critical eye to what these changes should and will mean. As an effort to keep these futurist topics in daily conversation, I’ll be using this space to highlight and probe topics that may bring into question how trends in the marketplace and technology may affect us in small and large ways.

EBM-1.5.JPGThis past week Google and OnDemandBooks announced a partnership (video) to bring the growing collection (currently more than 1,000,000) of public domain books directly to OnDemandBooks’ Espresso Book Machine. The Google content joins more than 800,000 in-copyright titles from more than 8,000 publishers and approximately 1,500,000 public domain titles available from the Internet Archive. While there is undoubtedly some overlap between catalogs, the size and scope are impressive. And that’s today.

With the comment period closed on the proposed Google Book Search legal settlement now closed, the back room negotiations are now in full swing. I think it likely that after some back-and-forth a settlement will be approved in some form, which will likely have the result that the entire (or nearly entire) Google catalog will be available as a marketable corpus, and also therefore available to the Espresso and other similar on-demand devices. The grander Google plan here is not so difficult to see (in fact it’s been there since day one for Google), tens of millions of digital titles encompassing many of the world’s research collections, an undeniably good index, a mechanism to reproduce the books cheaply and locally, as well as a partnership to deliver electronic copies to portable e-readers (all with appropriate rights and royalties thanks to the settlement) will have completely transformed how information is stored, delivered, and consumed. Still missing, though certainly on Google’s radar is metadata for their collection. I am waiting patiently for a more direct connection to OCLC (perhaps spelled a-c-q-u-i-s-i-t-i-o-n or m-e-r-g-e-r) which would effectively meld OCLC’s gold mine of metadata with the data itself.

With this new model, somebody is going to take it on the chin (or worse). Bookstores? Libraries? Authors? Publishers? Consumers? Google? (ha, hardly). The answer to that question I believe lies in how these industries plan for this new world. As with the tide, those who read the water can often avoid being swept out to sea, but that doesn’t make it easy, or the exact route easy to discern.

Bookstores: Wonder why Amazon is lobbying against the Google settlement … Amazon helped sunset the local bookstore by centralization of the physical item, but centralization of the virtual item is where the future lies because the physical item can be created from the virtual. As the costs of creating that on-demand item drop, so does Amazon’s business model (for books at least). Why would I wait a couple days for a book to be delivered to me when I can search it online and order it to be printed at my local book shop in the next hour? With Kindle, Amazon has had an opportunity for e-reader market, but I believe their lack of openness on the platform may be a significant mistake. For smaller local booksellers that buy into on-demand technology (Espresso’s run $80,000 and up – not that expensive in my opinion), those that get in early will see a reward. Being the place in your town with on-demand access to a catalog this big is a draw, and we know the book business isn’t going to instantly melt away. The second, third, and fourth machines in a market will likely see diminishing returns. (Small town perspective here – larger markets will of course support more outlets). Issues of inventory management will fade for stores (a good thing), and their shelves turn more into displays of samples. The browsing experience can be preserved (even expanded) while inventory always matches need.

Libraries: The amount of money spent by libraries to proactively acquire, catalog and maintain just-in-time collections on the hope and prayer that someone will use them is staggering. We know there are titles that have been acquired that are never cracked open. I’m sure the statistics for different libraries on this are all over the map. But in an on-demand world, why doesn’t the use statistic become 100%? All books are relevant and used. Is this the death of traditional collection development (and traditional acquisitions)? Collecting will still happen, but the user is the selector, and the Espresso is the acquirer now. How about interlibrary loan? Libraries will again spend good chunks of money to ship books hither and yon (often of old and out-of-print materials). In the on-demand world, we take the order, click print, catalog it, and I’m betting come out ahead financially on the deal. Additional questions: what is the purpose of a stored library collection? How does the local (or even consortial) online catalog fit in the Google Book Search world? Does it?

Authors: A glance to the music industry shows that radically new distribution methods can’t kill creativity. It’s arguably easier than ever for artists to create and distribute their work to ever-increasingly niche markets. This is thanks to digital distribution. Yes there is a piracy angle here, and artists do carry a liability for that, but not the principal one (in my opinion). A similar world for books would I think be liberating for authors who would have access to an amazingly direct and efficient distribution channel for content.

Publishers: I just don’t see much good news here. As with the recording industry, the folks in the middle who market and manage are increasingly marginalized as artists seek to connect directly with their audiences. Perhaps the best thing they have to offer is a name and reputation, yet I believe the social media revolution will bring new ways to assign authority and reliability to content that rely less and less on a publisher’s name. As with music, individuals will be able to publish themselves, or band together in niche publishing circles.

Consumers: Consumers want easy access to the broadest catalog in multiple forms (print, electronic, digest, etc.). They also want to know how a given work relates to other related works. Information wants to be free, though we have clear precedent that consumers will pay for services that open new possibilities in use. Google’s model does all this, and I think would do it well. Others could (and I’m sure they will) follow the same road as Google in providing this service. All the work we as humans have collectively pursued in building and growing our wisdom and knowledge have built to this next step. I think it’s pretty clear we’re going there, and provided that the economics are appropriate and fair, this will mark a huge victory in unlocking so much of our intellectual heritage for all around the world to see – indeed these days, anyone with a cell phone.

Google: Somehow, I think they’ll do just fine.

My open question for Luther then is, what do these changes really mean for us, and not just in LIS, but the Book Shop, and what changes does it mean for our faculty and students. The infrastructure for this new model is all in place today, and it will just continue to evolve and grow. And I think the changes it brings won’t be small here or anywhere else.

LIS Blog Highlights from the Week

The following articles are sampled from those available on the LIS Blog:

Notes from LIS Council

LIS Council met August 18th and discussed the following topics:

  • Upcoming LIS mixer for student employees
  • Update on service point renovation
  • Upcoming electronics recycling opportunities
  • GoPrint
  • Emergency response planning
  • Luther’s representatives to EDUCAUSE
  • Internet bandwidth management / NetEqualizer connection limits
  • File Sharing
  • LIS metrics

NITLE Opportunities

As a member of NITLE (National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education), Luther has the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of developmental and training programs intended for faculty, librarians, and information technologists. Events listed at the link below are currently open for registration by Luther participants. LIS Staff who are interested in participating in an event should speak with Christopher Barth. Faculty who are interested in participating should speak with Lori Stanley. Participation is contingent upon available funding and program acceptance.

A full list of events (sortable by registration deadline) is available at http://www.nitle.org/www/events.

Upcoming LIS Training, Instruction, and Professional Development Opportunities

Click on the event below for specific information and for a link to register. More information on training and development events is available.

CourseFormatDateStart TimeEnd TimeLocation
Voice SeminarLibrary InstructionSep 226:00 pm7:00 pmPreus Library – Hovde Lounge
Teaching and Research Resources of ICPSRFaculty DevelopmentSep 234:00 pm5:00 pmOlin 301 – Round Table Room
Art 139: The Green BookLibrary InstructionSep 2411:00 am12:00 pmRare Book Room – Preus Library
Theatre/Dance 369: Dance HistoryLibrary InstructionSep 242:30 pm4:00 pmPreus Library – Hovde Lounge
New Faculty Teaching Group: Undergraduate Research and Honors Opportunities at LutherFaculty DevelopmentSep 282:45 pm3:45 pmDahl Centennial Union – Nansen
Teaching Writing: Creating Effective AssignmentsFaculty DevelopmentSep 284:00 pm5:30 pmOlin 101
Philosophy / MFL MarMacLibrary InstructionSep 3010:00 am1:00 pmPreus Library – Hovde Lounge
Preus Library 40th Anniversary CelebrationLibrary InstructionOct 111:00 am3:00 pmPreus Library – Hovde Lounge
Art 121: Foundations in Art and DesignLibrary InstructionOct 52:45 pm3:45 pmRare Book Room – Preus Library
New Faculty Teaching Group: Academic Support and AdvisingFaculty DevelopmentOct 122:45 pm3:45 pmDahl Centennial Union – Nansen
Music 131: Honors Music TheoryLibrary InstructionOct 169:30 am10:15 am
New Faculty Teaching Group: Research and Technology ResourcesFaculty DevelopmentOct 262:45 pm3:45 pmDahl Centennial Union – Nansen
Teaching Writing: Helping Students ReviseFaculty DevelopmentOct 264:00 pm5:30 pmOlin 101
New Faculty Teaching GroupFaculty DevelopmentNov 92:45 pm3:45 pmDahl Centennial Union – Nansen
New Faculty Teaching GroupFaculty DevelopmentNov 232:45 pm3:45 pmDahl Centennial Union – Nansen
Teaching Writing: Using Rubrics to Evaluate PapersFaculty DevelopmentNov 304:00 pm5:30 pmOlin 101
German 201: Intermediate German ILibrary InstructionDec 212:15 pm12:15 pmRare Book Room – Preus Library
New Faculty Teaching GroupFaculty DevelopmentDec 72:45 pm3:45 pmDahl Centennial Union – Nansen

Internet Resource of the Week: Classify

A site to scratch the geeky cataloger in us all. (You mean not everyone has a geeky cataloger locked within?) OCLC has made available an experimental service to provide call number information for books, DVDs, CDs, and many other kinds of media based upon their broad dataset. Drawing on 36 million catalog records, users can submit an ISBN, ISSN, UPC, OCLC number, or author/title combination to retrieve data on how that particular item is numbered across OCLC’s data. Dewey, Library of Congress and National Library of Medicine numbers are incldued.

While the service focuses on call numbers, along for the ride on your results screen come edition and holdings information, some pie charts showing how the item is classed by percentage of records, subject headings (and more pie graphs), as well as some edition-specific metadata.

On the web at http://http://deweyresearch.oclc.org/classify2/

Quote(s) of the Week:

  • “We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning.” – Jean Baudrillard
  • “There is no such thing as information overload but filter failure.” – Dennis Crowley (Clay Shirky)
  • “Picture an entire city, a modern, wealthy place, in the richest country in the world, in which the vital services provided by libraries are withdrawn due to political brinksmanship and an unwillingness to spare one banker’s bonus worth of tax-dollars to sustain an entire region’s connection with human culture and knowledge and community. Think of it and ask yourself what the hell has happened to us.” – Cory Doctorow (on the threatened shutdown of the Free Library of Philadelphia)
  • “Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.” – Thomas H. Huxley

Image of the Week: Software Engineering Explained

Video of the Week: Did You Know? 4.0

Links of the Week

  • Software, Operating Systems, and The Cloud
    • None

infoneer.pngThe links and media above are selected from material posted to Infoneer.net, which gathers links and comment on the worlds of libraries, technology, higher education, culture, intellectual property, copyright, information, ethics, design, professional identity, leadership, and the future. Subscribe to Infoneer.net RSS

This Week in LIS is published most Fridays by Christopher Barth, Executive Director of Library and Information Services at Luther College for the Luther College community as well as those interested in information services and higher education.

Content is made available under Creative Commons license. Creative Commons License

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