Gorman on Google: Some Backlash

-- Library Journal, 11/14/2005

American Library Association president Michael Gorman, whose comments on bloggers caused controversy earlier this year, now has some librarians peeved at him for his criticism of Google's scan plan. "I feel that this is a potential disaster on several levels," Gorman told the Wall Street Journal. "They are reducing scholarly texts to paragraphs. The point of a scholarly text is they are written to be read sequentially from beginning to end, making an argument and engaging you in dialogue." Gorman called "ridiculous" Google's assumption that readers can look at "snippets" and then decide whether they want the book, and said Google's plan to include copyrighted texts represents a "flaunting of my intellectual property rights."

On his Copycense blog, librarian and policy analyst K. Matthew Dames commented, "Mr. Gorman's comments show a shocking naiveté about his presidential post, a stunning lack of perspective and knowledge about the Google Print projects, and a disappointing waste of the influence the ALA could and should wield in this debate." Noting that Gorman said ALA has no official position, Dames observed that ALA should have a position, and that Gorman's statement would be seen as representative: "If Gorman's comments do not reflect ALA's membership or board, he is out of touch with his organization or made a colossal mistake. If his comments are consistent with what ALA's membership wants, then the four library organizations need to have a sit down and discuss a coordinated response." Dames further responded, "Has it occurred to Gorman that Google's digitization projects may allow a researcher to discover a source about which she knew nothing, and then enter a library to use that text or order it through the interlibrary loan process?"