New Google Books Settlement: Robert Darnton's Analysis

Distinguished historian and now head of Harvard Libraries Robert Darnton has written a thorough and thoughtful review of the new Google Book settlement that occured on November 9, 2009, in the New York Review of Books :  http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23518

He analyzes the problems at stake, the scope of the decision, the European reaction to the settlement, and his own suggestion for a solution to the problem of privatizing the largest library the world has ever known:  "The most ambitious solution would transform Google's digital database into a truly public library. That, of course, would require an act of Congress, one that would make a decisive break with the American habit of determining public issues by private lawsuit. The legislation would have to settle ancillary problems—how to adjust copyright, deal with orphan books, and compensate Google for its investment in digitizing—but it would have the advantage of clearing up a messy legal landscape and of giving the American people what they deserve: a national digital library equal to the needs of the twenty-first century. But it is not clear how Google would react to such a buyout."

Check out the full article, and let us know what you think: 

Volume 56, Number 20 · December 17, 2009

Google and the New Digital Future

By Robert Darnton

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23518