Google's Book Search Library Project, the massive digitization project involving the “G5 libraries" (Michigan, Stanford, Oxford, the New York Public Library, and Harvard), has really touched a cultural nerve.
Quite a few discussants have concentrated on the details of one or more facets of this project, i.e., fair use, the lawsuits, the digitization process and technology involved, Google’s business interests, and the G5 libraries’ motives and anticipated benefits.
There also seem to be some deeper, inchoate fears lurking about...
Read More »
For the last few mornings during my pre-dawn walkabout with our dog Max I have been mulling over the Library 2.0 thing, especially the 
The Library 2.0 (L2) discussion continues across the 
Throughout nearly all of the twentieth century, large companies controlled the creation, dissemination, and viewing of video information. Motion pictures started first, with television added as another layer in mid-century. Video really was a carefully controlled broadcast medium. The phrase, “Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!" captures in a nutshell how public anticipation for a new release of a movie was carefully orchestrated. Time-shifting, place-shifting, and format-shifting generally were not encouraged. 
Thursday, ten librarians from 
