Library Leaders Meet To Discuss Google Book Search Deal

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 2/17/2009 2:05:00 PM

• How will librarians’ voices be heard?
• Questions emerge around five key concerns
• Clock ticks on settlement

Continuing an ongoing discussion, members of the American Library Association (ALA) Washington Office, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL), and the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) met in Washington, DC, last week to discuss the implications of the Google Book Search settlement. While the deal’s many complexities portend a number of issues for libraries, ARL associate executive director Prue Adler acknowledged that one key issue loomed large: how to get libraries’ voices heard as the private legal settlement heads toward approval.

Although libraries are not part officially party to the private settlement, Adler explained, library leaders last week discussed not only their specific concerns with the potential deal but, more broadly, options and strategies to help ensure libraries’ concerns are factored into any final, court-approved settlement.

Can you hear me now? 
The meeting in Washington is the latest in a series of efforts by library organizations to help makes sense of how the Google deal could impact libraries. Late last year, ARL commissioned Jonathan Band to write, “AGuide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement,” and at the ALA annual meeting in Denver, ALA sponsored a lively panel discussion of the deal. In a statement issued after last week’s meeting, library leaders said concerns revolve around five broad questions: 

• Access: Who will represent the interests of libraries and the public should the deal be approved, and might the settlement create “a monopoly” that threatens the mission of libraries?
• Privacy: Will users’ confidentiality be compromised as Google monitors and tracks reading habits under this settlement?
• Intellectual freedom: What are there academic freedom issues to consider? What are the issues regarding possible access and use restrictions on the Research Corpus?
• Equitable treatment: What impact could the deal have on the “diverse landscape of libraries,” especially, in these economic times, could the deal negatively affect some libraries with lean budgets, or expand the digital divide?
• Terms of use. Under the terms of the agreement, will library users continue to enjoy the same rights to information under copyright and other laws? Will the settlement impact the legal discussions and interpretations of library exceptions that allow for library lending, limited copying and preservation?

Library groups continue to collect input on these questions—though it remains to be seen how that input may be incorporated into the approval process. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Official notification of the deal, the Google Book Search Copyright Settlement in Progress, went out by email and postal mail last week, in addition being published in 218 countries and 72 languages, online and in major magazine and newspapers. Those wishing to object to the settlement face a May 5, 2009, deadline. And the real fun begins in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where a hearing is set for June 11, 2009.

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