The Title Wars:

Google Books and Public Libraries

Traditionally public libraries have existed as the sole provider of assistive technology to patrons. Recent years have seen shift away from this role which has been correlated with the rise of technology and one company in particular: Google

In 2004 Google began scanning books with the hopes of building a database calling it the Google digitization project, resulting in a drawn out legal battle over ownership rights to the source material. Years after this case was settled, a judge struck down the project claiming “it gave Google a monopoly on the sale of orphan books.-in copyright but out of print books whose authors and publishers can’t be found.”

Google may have posed a threat to public libraries even before Google Books.  Bill Pateck of that King County public library commented on this saying Google answers in one afternoon more reference questions than all the public libraries in the United States in an entire year.  Perhaps search engines online marked the beginning of the end for public libraries or at least the reasons people used them in the past. Now they would have a much quicker and more convenient way of obtaining information from another resource - a recurring problem faced by libraries.  

Libraries breathed a sigh of relief and felt they had avoided a catastrophe.  If every book was digitized why would people go to the Library? That was until a new technology debuted called Google Books, which was a groundbreaking in several ways.  An outside company had managed to develop a better resource then an institution with years of experience in this field. This brought back the same fears felt by librarians during the digitization project.

Google Book’s debut could be considered akin to the comet during the era of the dinosaurs.  Patrons now have the option to access titles at their convenience. More importantly, it gives them ability to tailor it to their needs, whether it's simply adjusting the font size of the pace at which the text is read, features missing from most books in circulation at the public library.  In this day and age independence is what people prioritize most. Wanting to do things their own way. We also live in a culture of instant gratification, where resources need to be accessible on our phone and delivered quickly. In a sense, perhaps Google understood this mindset perfectly, seeing the writing on the wall for public libraries.  Perhaps instead of causing their demise, Google merely hastened it.

One of the most important aspects of Google Books tends to get overlooked.  It is one of the most significant achievements in assitive technology. Accomplishing the goal of giving patrons the tools to be independent, while making learning easier for people who have struggled in the past.  Is this worth sacrificing public libraries for?