NCLIS Issues Report from Symposium on Mass Digitization

The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) has published Scholarship and Libraries in Transition: A Dialogue about the Impacts of Mass Digitization Projects. The report is the work of a symposium held at the University of Michigan on March 10-11, 2006. See also the webcast of the symposium. [RJ]

The idea for the symposium was inspired by the announcement in December 2004 for a partnership between Google, Inc. and five major research libraries to digitize over 10 million unique titles. This partnership launched a new era of large-scale digitization heretofore not imagined feasible or affordable. However, the “Google 5” project has generated many questions about the legal, social, economic, and other impacts of this and similar projects that will inevitably follow Google’s lead. The symposium brought together scholars, librarians, publishers, government leaders to discuss their concerns and issues. NCLIS co-sponsored the symposium, which was planned and organized by the University of Michigan Library staff and funded mainly by the University of Michigan.

Source: Executive Summary.