The Frankenstein of Book Digitalization Projects, Google Books

1,000,000th Book Scanned

On Feb. 2, 2008, the University of Michigan Library digitized its one millionth book, most of which was done as part of the Library's deal with Google. See Paul Courant's, Dean of Libraries, blog post and the Library's website page, which includes its mass digitalization processing flowchart (pdf).

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of books are being added to Google Book Search every day, but writes Campus Technology's Dian Schaffhauser, "Once you get past the freakishly high numbers bandied about, the two-dozen-plus distinguished institutions that have signed on, the legal paranoia and the ultra-ultra-secret processes and technologies involved-you'll find that Book Search is simply another high-cost effort that is simultaneously visionary and crude." Schaffhauser adds, "[the project] doesn't even have to succeed in order to impact the transformation of scholarship activities."

In Google Book Search: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly, Schaffhauser provides an inside look at how one of Google's partners, the University of California, is meeting its six-year contractual commitment to feed 2.5 million volumes into the Google Book Search system.

In the article we learn that UC is obligated to delivery 3,000 books per day. How does UC meet this goal?

It isn't by being overly selective. And it doesn't involve rare materials that aren't part of the circulating collection. "All of the libraries are talking about that, in the sense of what might be the most interesting materials to scan," says [Robin] Chandler, [former director of data acquisitions for UC's California Digital Library]. "But I'll be very frank: There's a real balance point between volume and selection, especially when looking at these numbers. UC is trying to meet the needs of the contract it's signed."

If you remember your Hegel, Quantity becomes Quality when the number is large. OK, it's been about 35 years since I read Hegel but the idea is simple enough; one atom bomb is a threat; 10,000 nuclear weapons is MADness. The quantity of digitalized books that are and will be contained in the Google Book Search database may result in Google Book Search becoming the de facto standard for researching information contained in digital books. That too would be madness. I highly recommend this article (and accompanying podcast of Dian Schaffhauser's interview with Robin Chandler) to anyone interested in how the Frankenstein of book digitalization projects was and is being created.

Hat tip to LISNews. [JH]