Great headline to gain the attention of readers. The article focuses on multiple digitisation projects taking place at the National Library of Wales and includes comments on why libraries should be involved in digitisation projects vs. Google.
Roy Cellan Jones writes:
What's the point of a library or a librarian in the digital era? Who needs a physical space for books and archives, and librarians to police their use, when all that material will soon be available to anyone with a decent internet connection at the click of a mouse?
On a visit to the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth last week, I got a few answers to those questions. This is one of the UK's copyright libraries, able to ask for a copy of every book, newspaper and magazine published in the UK.
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The National Library is not however just sitting back and waiting for a graceful demise. It's plunging with enthusiasm into a massive digital project which could give it a sustainable future. A third of the staff now have roles in this project, so there's now a range of perhaps unfamiliar job titles, from Imaging Officer to Metadata Manager.
What they are engaged on is extremely ambitious, as Andrew Green, the Welsh-speaking Yorkshireman who runs the place, explained to me as we toured the building. The idea is to give free online public access to as much as possible of what he describes as "the printed heritage of Wales" from the 16th Century to the present day. So every book, periodical or pamphlet could end up online.
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So why does not Andrew Green just hand over his digital plans to Google, and let a commercial company bear the cost rather than the public purse? The librarian puts powerfully his case against the privatisation of our printed heritage. "The people of Wales own this collection, they have paid to build it up over the years, why should it just be handed to Google?"
He points out that commercial companies - even those as powerful as Google - can come and go, while the National Library of Wales is likely to be around in the 22nd Century.
The librarian believes he has found a new cause for his profession, to give a secure home to digitised texts produced with the highest quality standards and available freely to all. "These are huge benefits," he says, "and should be fought for by all of those who care about unimpeded public access to knowledge." Google beware - the librarians are getting cross, and they are quiet but patient people.
More After a Click
Perhaps the most difficult concept that Mr. Green shares is possibility that companies come and go even Google.
Remember (not that many years ago) when you first used Netscape? Many people believed that Netscape would grow to be a be a leading company (aka a "big player") in the Internet age. Well, that didn't happen. Our point here is NOT to compare Google with Netscape. It doesn't work and is not what we're trying to illustrate. Our point is to simply to show that any company, even the ones who change the game, can come and go. In five years, Mosaic/Netscape was launched, went public in a very very successful IPO (it was out of control), and was sold for more than $4 billion. AOL's hopes and plans for Netscape never occurred.
In a 2005, ten years after the IPO, this Fortune interview with Marc Andreesen and several others called the Netscape IPO, "the birth of the web."
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