All of your points are well taken, John, and provide useful nuances to a
complex discussion.  I didn't mean to start a debate on the announcement
listserv, and apologize if any of my announcement posting came across as
disparaging in any way.  Since this ALA program announcement generated some
sidebar discussion, perhaps we should think about this as a topic for a
panel at the Fall Forum in Philadelphia; it might be an interesting
opportunity for friendly discussion.  I certainly agree that there is a lot
of room for different approaches and opinions on mass digitization that are
all valid and responsible.  Cheers, John.

Best regards,
 
Martin Halbert, PhD, MLIS

Director for Digital Programs and Systems 
Robert W. Woodruff Library
540 Asbury Circle
Emory University
Atlanta, GA 30322

(ph)    404-727-2204 
(fax)   404-727-0827
(web)   http://martin.library.emory.edu
(email) [log in to unmask]

The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.  
- Okakura Kakuzo

You can't choose the ways in which you'll be tested.   
- Robert J. Sawyer

-----Original Message-----
From: John Wilkin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:17 PM
To: Martin Halbert; [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: New Emory/Kirtas/Amazon Mass Digitization Announcement - at ALA
June 24, 2007

Martin¹s posting seems to call for a little bit of friendly debate.  Martin
describes the Emory effort, saying that Emory ³retain[s] control of the
digitized versions of their collections (in contrast to the Google Print
Project model).² Language being the squishy thing that it is, I¹m sure
there¹s lots of room to mean something different that what I understood
Martin to be saying.  Let¹s consider some things this might mean:
 
+  To ³retain control² might mean the library receives a digital copy and
manages it.  If that¹s the case, then this is a right that every one of the
Google libraries has.
+  To ³retain control² might mean that the library receives a copy and may
provide access *services* around the book, to the extent provided by the
law. Again, this seems to be a right had by Google libraries, and a right we
can find supported in each of the publicly available agreements.
+  To ³retain control² might mean that the library receives a copy and can,
say, give it to another library.  Again, this or a variation of it is what
we see in California¹s contract with Google.  Michigan¹s contract permits
something similar‹the ability to use the content in a collaborative venture
with other libraries.
 
I don¹t mean to be obtuse here.  I think that what Martin *meant* is that
Emory can give their content away to anyone at any time in any format‹that
is, being able to do *anything* with the content is a good thing.  That¹s a
good point and one, I should note, that David Bearman made eloquently in the
December 2006 issue of D-Lib (review of Jeanneney's book).  Having digitized
tens of thousands of volumes on our own at Michigan (and having put most of
them in Amazon for sale as reprints), I¹d definitely agree that this level
of control is nice to have.  I would say, however, that having the sort of
control we do have by virtue of our deal with Google (and even seeing these
same volumes available for download as PDFs in Google), is a very nice level
of control to have retained.  In any event, we have always seen this as
preserving our ³role as stewards of the intellectual assets represented by
[our] collections.²



On 6/6/07 6:13 PM, "Martin Halbert" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> If you are attending the upcoming American Library Association meeting in
> Washington D.C., please consider attending a panel discussion on Sunday,
> June 24, from 10:30 AM - 12 Noon entitled, "Libraries as Digital
Publishers:
> A New Model for Scholarly Access to Information."  The panel will be this
> year's program for the Digital Library Technologies Interest Group, and
will
> be held in the Grand Hyatt room Independence H-1.
> 
> In this new model for mass digitization and digital publishing, libraries
> retain control of the digitized versions of their collections (in contrast
> to the Google Print Project model).  This option allows libraries to
> preserve their role as stewards of the intellectual assets represented by
> their collections.
> 
> The DLTIG panel will include presenters from Emory University, Kirtas
> Technologies, Amazon, and several other research libraries.  DLTIG
business
> meeting and elections will follow the panel presentation.
> 
> The following press release provides more information and context for this
> event.  Hope to see you there!
> 
> --------------------- Press Release ---------------------------
> 
> EMORY PARTNERSHIP BREAKS NEW GROUND IN PRINT-ON-DEMAND BOOKS
> 
> Emory University is launching a new model for digital scholarship through
a
> partnership with Kirtas Technologies, Inc., a maker of cutting-edge
digital
> scanning technology. Once digitized, the books will be made available on
> Amazon.com as well as other book distribution channels.
> 
> The partnership will enable Emory to apply automated scanning technology
to
> thousands of rare, out-of-print books in its research collections, making
it
> possible for scholars to browse the pages of these books on the Internet
or
> order bound, printed copies via a fast, affordable print-on-demand
service.
> 
> "We believe that mass digitization and print-on-demand publishing is an
> important new model for digital scholarship that is going to revolutionize
> the management of academic materials," said Martin Halbert, director for
> digital programs and systems at Emory's Robert W. Woodruff Library.
> "Information will no longer be lost in the mists of time when books go out
> of print. This is a way of opening up the past to the future."
> 
> Emory's Robert W. Woodruff Library is one of the premier research
libraries
> in the United States, with extensive holdings in the humanities, including
> many rare and special collections. To increase accessibility to these
aging
> materials, and ensure their preservation, the university purchased a
Kirtas
> robotic book scanner, which can digitize as many as 50 books per day,
> transforming the pages from each volume into an Adobe Portable Document
> Format (PDF). The PDF files will be uploaded to a Web site where scholars
> can access them. If a scholar wishes to order a bound, printed copy of a
> digitized book, they can go to Amazon.com and order the book on line.
> 
> Emory will receive compensation from the sale of digitized copies,
although
> Halbert stressed that the print-on-demand feature is not intended to
> generate a profit, but simply help the library recoup some of its costs in
> making out-of-print materials available.
> 
> Materials in Emory's collections that are rare and unique to the history
of
> the university and the South are currently being digitized as part of a
> pilot project. The university expects the print-on-demand feature for
these
> targeted materials to become available by the fall semester. Altogether,
the
> university houses more than 200,000 out-of-print volumes that were
published
> before 1923.
> 
> Emory was already on the leading edge of digital scholarship, as one of
the
> first universities to establish a major online peer-review journal. In the
> two years of its existence, Emory's Internet journal Southern Spaces
> (southernspaces.org) has grown into a dominant force in the Southern
studies
> field, attracting scholars from around the world to its forums and
> interactive, multi-media features.
> 
> Visitors to Southern Spaces can actually see and hear Southern writers
> reading from their works, in the actual settings of those works. A video
of
> Emory's Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey, for example, shows
> her reading "Elegy for the Native Guards" while standing amid the dunes of
> Shipp Island, Mississippi, where the poem is set.
> 
> "Mass digitization and print-on-demand capabilities represent another
> quantum leap forward for digital scholarship at Emory, opening up whole
new
> arenas of possibilities," Halbert said.
> 
> In addition to making out-of-print books more accessible, Emory librarians
> envision the university's mass digitization and print-on-demand
capabilities
> expanding the range of more current scholarly materials.
> 
> "The Emory libraries plan to use the program to support an array of
> scholarly publishing needs of our campus," said Rick Luce, vice provost
for
> libraries at Emory. "We will be providing new opportunities for our
faculty
> and students to disseminate their work, if they choose to do so, under the
> Emory banner."
> 
> As chair of the American Librarian Association's Digital Library
> Technologies Interest Group, Halbert will be leading a panel discussion at
> the ALA annual meeting in Washington, D.C. on June 24, entitled,
"Libraries
> as Digital Publishers: A New Model for Scholarly Access to Information."
> 
> EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: A demonstration of this digital scanning process will
> be held at 3 p.m. Thursday, June 7 at Woodruff Library. Please contact
> Elaine Justice, 404-727-0643, [log in to unmask] for more
information.
> 
> 
> ###
> 
> Emory University is one of the nation's leading private research
> universities and a member of the Association of American Universities.
Emory
> is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of
> arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art
> research facilities. Emory is ranked as one of the country's top 20
national
> universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools,
> the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate
> Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most
> comprehensive health care system. To access News@Emory RSS feeds, go to:
> http://news.emory.edu/Releases/RSSFeeds1124313225.html.
> 
> 
> --------------------- End Press Release -----------------------
> 
> Best regards,
>  
> Martin Halbert, PhD, MLIS
> 
> Director for Digital Programs and Systems
> Robert W. Woodruff Library
> 540 Asbury Circle
> Emory University
> Atlanta, GA 30322
> 
> (ph)    404-727-2204
> (fax)   404-727-0827
> (web)   http://martin.library.emory.edu
> (email) [log in to unmask]
> 
> The art of life lies in a constant readjustment to our surroundings.
> - Okakura Kakuzo
> 
> You can't choose the ways in which you'll be tested.
> - Robert J. Sawyer