Read this:
MoorishGirl: Bye Bye Library?
While I’m all for digitizing information and propagating it by the simplest means possible, I’m also concerned that some people on Capitol Hill might use this as a further excuse to cut funding for libraries.
This is a concern I hadn’t thought of before. I’ve been hooraying Google’s every scholarly move. It would be best if, early on in this process, the libraries begin taking the initiative, legislatively perhaps, to make sure that these steps are seen as public library-connected services aided by companies like Google and not the reverse. Digitizing the entirety of world knowledge and maintaining that digitization is not an inexpensive proposition, and there should be some long term plan in place to ensure that there is a non-digitized backup, just in case some cataclysmic Y2K-type of scenario ever occurs.
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