Along Came Google: A History of Library Digitization

by Deanna Marcum, Roger C. Schonfeld

Overview

An incisive history of the controversial Google Books project and the ongoing quest for a universal digital library

Libraries have long talked about providing comprehensive access to information for everyone. But when Google announced in 2004 that it planned to digitize books to make the world's knowledge accessible to all, questions were raised about the roles and responsibilities of libraries, the rights of authors and publishers, and whether a powerful corporation should be the conveyor of such a fundamental public good. Along Came Google traces the history of Google's book digitization project and its implications for us today.

Deanna Marcum and Roger Schonfeld draw on in-depth interviews with those who both embraced and resisted Google's plans, from librarians and technologists to university leaders, tech executives, and the heads of leading publishing houses. They look at earlier digital initiatives to provide open access to knowledge, and describe how Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page made the case for a universal digital library and drew on their company's considerable financial resources to make it a reality. Marcum and Schonfeld examine how librarians and scholars organized a legal response to Google, and reveal the missed opportunities when a settlement with the tech giant failed.

Along Came Google sheds light on the transformational effects of the Google Books project on scholarship and discusses how we can continue to think imaginatively and collaboratively about expanding the digital availability of knowledge.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691224374
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	05/09/2023
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Deanna Marcum (1946–2022) was senior advisor at Ithaka S+R and served as associate librarian for library services at the Library of Congress from 2003 to 2011. Roger C. Schonfeld is vice president of libraries, scholarly communication, and museums at Ithaka S+R.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vii

Introduction 1

1 Collaborating for Access 14

2 The Dreamers 37

3 A Stunning Announcement: Libraries Jump On Board 72

4 Unlocking Access 96

5 The Academy Protests 105

6 Publishers, Legal Issues, Settlement 128

7 Seeking Complementarities: The Emergence of HathiTrust 160

8 Implications 188

Epilogue 205

Index 211

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Marcum and Schonfeld have captured the excitement that surrounded the launch of what came to be known as the Google Books project. Along Came Google brings to life the history, controversies, successes, and failures of the collaboration between Google and its research library partners as they sought to create a vast, universally accessible digital library. This book is essential for those seeking to understand the role this undertaking played in the radical transformation of scholarly communications today.”—Karin Trainer, University Librarian Emerita, Princeton University

“When Google announced in December 2004 that it was partnering with five prestigious libraries to digitize millions of books, many saw this as an opportunity to realize the dream of a universal library, accessible to all. But Google’s bold plan quickly became bogged down in legal challenges, plunging Google into a long-running dispute with publishers and authors that lasted more than a decade. Marcum and Schonfeld’s well-researched account of the origins and consequences of the Google Books Library Project sheds valuable new light on this important if ill-fated venture. It is a key resource for anyone interested in the ongoing story of the impact of the digital revolution on the highly prized worlds of knowledge and culture.”—John B. Thompson, University of Cambridge

“This compelling book investigates the concept of the ‘dream of the universal library’ in the decades before, during, and following the judicial ruling on the Google Books project. Marcum and Schonfeld shape the story through a narrative that reveals the breathtaking scale of the project while situating it within a wider trend of legal and cultural challenges to mass digitization.”—Jessica Gardner, Cambridge University Libraries

Editorial Reviews

"Readers will find a well-balanced perspective of this issue, covering ethics, finances, intentions, and a glimpse of the future. The book will be of interest to librarians, researchers, publishers, thought leaders, and those interested in digital technology."

Booklist

"This timely work examines the digitization of libraries and their transformation from collection builders to information access points. . . . Recommended."

Choice

"This book deserves recognition as the definitive history of the Google book digitization project."—-Jeffrey Garrett, ResearchGate

From the Publisher

09/01/2021

The Google Books project, a digital library made up of scanned texts from libraries and universities, has received its fair share of coverage in the press and in books about Google generally, like Siva Vaidhyanathan's The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Worry) and Ken Auletta's Googled: The End of the World as We Know It. Here, Marcum and Schonfeld (both of the consultancy Ithaka S+R) give Google Books their full attention, drawing parallels to several predecessor efforts and providing insight as to what might lie ahead. In addition to offering an overview of earlier book digitization efforts and how they relate to Google Books, there are chapters on Google's recruitment of participant institutions, initial reactions (positive and negative), the Authors Guild v. Google fair use lawsuit and settlement, project leadership from University of Michigan, and the establishment of HathiTrust. Marcum and Schonfeld also reflect on how the goals and outcomes of the Google Books project have influenced the direction of scholarly communications and digital preservation efforts. They effectively argue that although the Google Books project remains controversial, there's no question that it has massively changed the landscape of digitization. VERDICT Marcum and Schonfeld clearly come down in favor of Google Books in the fair use debate, but they are conscientious about equally representing multiple points of view. Will appeal to a broad readership and particularly to readers in the library and publishing worlds.—Sara Holder, Univ. of Illinois Libs., Champaign

Library Journal

2021-07-28
The story of Google’s early attempt at creating a universal library with its “promises of making all the world’s information available to everyone.”

Marcum and Schonfeld, both of whom have long experience in the library world, begin their examination of the Google Books project by discussing the concept of a universal library, a “comprehensive library that is accessible to all,” an idea that dates back to the Great Library of Alexandria. In 2004, in the early days of information digitization as a practice, Google announced its plans to “allow simultaneous searches of ‘billions of web pages and texts of hundreds of thousands of books.’ ” After introducing Google’s vision, the authors chronicle the history of resource sharing in libraries, from the card catalog at the Library of Congress to the creation of interlibrary loan services and online databases. Then they move on to the specifics of Google’s ambitious project, which began with a partnership with five renowned university libraries and a number of publishing companies and ended up leading to the creation of a number of similarly themed projects. By sharing the views of both the librarians who supported the concept and those who were concerned about a library for everyone being controlled by a private company, the authors offer a nice overview, including the mechanics of the initial project, objections from publishers about copyright issues, and the court case that would ultimately decide the fate of the project. Throughout the heavily researched text, which benefits from interviews with librarians and other information professionals describing their experiences in “the early days of digitization,” the authors keep readers informed, despite dryly academic passages, of just how widely “the entry of Google into the library arena” would affect information sharing and librarianship today.

Sometimes too scholarly, but its contribution to the Google-vs.-publishers debate is well worth the jargon and technical terms.

Kirkus Reviews