What does it mean to own a book?

That was the headline of an article from this past Sunday's edition of the New York Times. For the most part, the article was about Brewster Kahle's legal troubles with publishers, and the differences of owning physical books versus licensing digital items.† The following snippet struck a chord with me:

  Librarians came before publishers," Mr. Kahle, a 62-year old
  librarian, said in a recent interview in the former Christian
  Science church in western San Francisco that houses the
  archive. "We came before copyright, but publishers now think
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  of libraries as customer service departments for their database
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  products.
  ^^^^^^^^

I have heard such a sentiment from a few fellow librarians, and from my point of view libraries are increasingly and merely fiscal middlemen between publishers and patrons. This is at the cost of not really creating collections nor preserving the historical record. Furthermore, I don't believe the current situation is sustainable, and when it finally breaks down, we will have nothing to show for our cash expenditures. Think of all the money we spend towards licensing fees. Sure, licensing offers convenience, but if that same money had been invested in actually acquiring the content, then we would have not only had something to show for it, but we would have also increased our skills so other content could be collected. 

Now, pretend our mailing list is Library Seminar 504, and ask yourself, "To what degree do I agree with the quoted passage? Why or why not?"


† As you may or may not know, Brewster Kahle runs the Internet Archive.

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Eric Lease Morgan <[log in to unmask]>