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Monday, June 2, 2008

Libraries vs. Google

Robert Darnton in the New York Review of Books has a longish reflection on the importance of books, old books, and research libraries, while acknowledging that Goggle's attempt to scan them all is important even though it will never succeed.

His description of how news was created in Newark 50 years ago is hilarious. (All the news that's worth interrupting the journalist's poker game, seems to have been the motto). And yes, no doubt things haven't gotten any better since then. He also notes that
Google employs hundreds, perhaps thousands, of engineers but, as far as I know, not a single bibliographer.
Do you think he's right? Oy.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJune 3, 2008 at 11:50 AM

    Do you think he's right? Oy.

    very very likely !!!
    - when during my professional life-time corporations shifted from being dominated by the "Diplom-Kaufmann" to the engineers and scientists, centuries-long-tested principles were thrown overboard without ever giving it even a second thought. Everybody who dared even highly timidly to protest was given a job that guaranteed non-interference for the future. So I tend to believe that a job that is tainted by "non-digitality" is sneered at by Google.

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