Scholarship and Academic Libraries (and their kin) in the World of Google

Paul N. Courant (Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor of Economics and of Public Policy at the University of Michigan and Distinguished Fellow at the Council of Library and Information Resource) delivered the keynote address at the Seventh Annual Conference on Libraries and Museums in the Digital World, Feb. 15-17, 2006. The address, Scholarship and Academic Libraries (and their kin) in the World of Google, is published in the August 2006 issue of First Monday. Here's the abstract:

The prospect of ubiquitous digitization will not change the fundamental relationships among scholarship, academic libraries, and publication. Collaboration across time and space, which is a principal mechanism of scholarship, ought to be enhanced. Reforms in copyright law will be required if the promise of digitization is to be realized; absent such reform, there is a serious risk that much academically valuable material will become invisible and unused. Ubiquitous digitization will change radically the economics that have supported university–based collections of published material. Scholars and scholarly institutions (including libraries and university presses) must assert vigorously claims of fair use and openness.

The August 2006 issue of First Monday includes several other conference papers. Check them out. [JH]