My reaction to the google/libraries announcement pretty much mirrors Dorothea’s posts. Sometimes I wish I subscribed to fewer listservs, because the browbeating and rending of garments that goes on in reaction to a potentially cool announcement gets to be a bit much sometimes. It seems like the libraries involved are getting a pretty good deal, they wouldn’t have the money to do this sort of large scale digitization on their own. I guess I don’t understand why people aren’t seeing this as more of a marketing opportunity to point out the value of works that are in the public domain, and the value that gets taken away with each copyright extension. This would also be a great opportunity to highlight the digitization efforts that are already underway at many libraries. It must be an interesting time to be a web guru/cataloger/programmer at the University of Michigan Libraries, and I’m curious to see what will happen there once the bulk of their collection is digitized.
We certainly should be thinking of privacy issues, but I guess I don’t see how this will be the Death of Libraries.