The Daily SLog

Sergey Brin puts his spin on GoogleBooks in an op-ed in today’s New York Times:

“But the vast majority of books ever written are not accessible to anyone except the most tenacious researchers at premier academic libraries. Books written after 1923 quickly disappear into a literary black hole. With rare exceptions, one can buy them only for the small number of years they are in print. After that, they are found only in a vanishing number of libraries and used book stores. As the years pass, contracts get lost and forgotten, authors and publishers disappear, the rights holders become impossible to track down.

Inevitably, the few remaining copies of the books are left to deteriorate slowly or are lost to fires, floods and other disasters. While I was at Stanford in 1998, floods damaged or destroyed tens of thousands of books. Unfortunately, such events are not uncommon — a similar flood happened at Stanford just 20 years prior. You could read about it in The Stanford-Lockheed Meyer Library Flood Report, published in 1980, but this book itself is no longer available.

Because books are such an important part of the world’s collective knowledge and cultural heritage, Larry Page, the co-founder of Google, first proposed that we digitize all books a decade ago, when we were a fledgling startup. At the time, it was viewed as so ambitious and challenging a project that we were unable to attract anyone to work on it. But five years later, in 2004, Google Books (then called Google Print) was born, allowing users to search hundreds of thousands of books. Today, they number over 10 million and counting”

Denver Bibliophile’s Bedbugs Take a Bite Out of ILL Loans

Denver Public Library has destroyed 31 books and fumigated four areas of
its central library after a bedbug infestation caused, ironically, by a
patron dedicated to preserving classic literature.

The contaminated books, which are rare works that were borrowed from DPL
through interlibrary loan, had been checked out by Roger Goffeney, a
retired poet and minister, who volunteers for the online collection
Project Gutenberg. Goffeney checked out the books to compare DPL’s print
editions to the digital versions to ensure that the works had been
scanned accurately. “Not a one [of the loaned books] belonged to us,”
DPL spokeswoman Celeste Jackson told American Libraries.

However, in early September library staff discovered bugs, their larvae,
and droppings inside books returned by Goffeney. DPL banned him from the
library and asked him to bag his outstanding books and return them
outside the library building rather than through the book drop. However,
he placed them in the book drop a week later, causing a reinfestation,
ABC affiliate KMGH-TV reported September 24. “He flat-out refuses to
cooperate and has recontaminated the facility,” DPL Manager of Security
and Safety Tom Scott said in the September 22 Denver Post. “At this
point, it’s an intentional act,” he asserted, noting that this was the
first bedbug infestation he has encountered at DPL in his 34-year tenure
there.

Goffeney declined to comment to American Libraries, other than saying he
expected the library would sue him for the cost of the books and
fumigation, and that he would hold off on making a statement until after
his anticipated court appearance. However, he told local media that the
bedbugs come from his downtown apartment in Cathedral Plaza, which is
owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver. “We’ve always had some kind
of insect infestation, but it’s never been to this degree,” Goffeney
told KMGH.

DPL spokesperson Jackson told AL that the replacement cost for the books
is estimated at $12,000 and the cost of fumigation at $6,000. She also
said the library would likely seek remuneration from Goffeney through a
collection agency, per the terms of its borrowers’ agreement. “I have no
intention of paying a dime,” Goffeney told KMGH, adding that he’s
considering filing a lawsuit to get his borrowing privileges restored.

—Gordon Flagg, American Libraries Online Posted on September 30, 2009.