Off the Shelf
Digital Libraries: now, and in the future
A recent New Yorker article, Anthony Grafton’s Future Reading: Digitization and its discontents, examines the wave of projects that are taking libraries and archives online. Grafton avoids the lures of excessive optimism or pessimism about the possibilities of digitization, thereby avoiding fantastic predictions of totally universal and free libraries, and alternately, dystopias of information anarchy. His main target is the overly-optimistic vision, which he says has given rise to, “utopian prospects, such as a universal archive that will contain not only all books and articles but all documents anywhere—the basis for a total history of the human race.”
To counteract the optimism, Grafton presents some of the obstacles to the “universal archive”: technical limitations (for example, the imperfection of Google’s optical character recognition software); the vast chasm between what exists in print, and what has already been digitized; copyright issues; and the all-important issue of money – how much the digitization process requires, how much Google and others hope to make from their efforts, and what competition between players will mean for access. Grafton states that, “The supposed universal library, then, will be not a seamless mass of books, easily linked and studied together, but a patchwork of interfaces and databases, some open to anyone with a computer and WiFi, others closed to those without access or money.”
This may sound like a gloomy assessment, but on the other hand, Grafton makes no effort to hide his enthusiasm about the benefits of the digitization movement: “…The digital world has already become a Land of Cockaigne for scholars—a place where we can lie down and feed ourselves all day without needing to move, and where the main danger is of bursting.” In an online-only accompaniment to his article, he presents a multitude of links to exciting online projects, from the free e-texts of Project Gutenberg, to the immersive virtual re-creation of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum.
In my work at the IGLOO Library, I’ve been able to see the challenges and possibilities of digitization first hand. One of the great strengths of the IGLOO library is its commitment to open access, which ensures that researchers are not hampered by lack of funds when they want to access our collection. Grafton may be correct in his assertion that the digitization movement does not necessarily entail a movement towards free access, but I do hope that as the value of open access collections such as IGLOO are realized, more projects will choose to follow the open access model.
Grafton, Anthony (5 Nov 2007), Future Reading: Digitization and its discontents. The New Yorker, Retrieved 13 Nov 2007 from: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/11/05/071105fa_fact_grafton
Grafton, Anthony (5 Nov 2007), Web Sightings: Adventures in Wonderland. The New Yorker (online only), Retrieved 13 Nov 2007 from:http://www.newyorker.com/online/2007/11/05/071105on_onlineonly_grafton
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The Off the Shelf Blog provides regular updates about the library's acquisitions, news and events. The blog shares the IGLOO Library team’s views on such topics as emerging digital library technologies and the Open Access movement, as well as tips and tricks for conducting effective research.
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