Google Books as a General Research Collection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5860/lrts.54n2.77Abstract
The current study attempts to measure the extent to which “full view” volumes contained in Google Books constitute a viable generic research collection for works in the public domain, using as a reference collection the catalog of a major nineteenth-century research library and using as control collections—against which the reference catalog also would be searched—the online catalogs of two other major research libraries: one that was actively collecting during the same period and one that began actively collecting at a later date. A random sample of 398 entries was drawn from the Catalogue of the Library of the Boston Athenæum, 1807–1871, and searched against Google Books and the online catalogs of the two control collections to determine whether Google Books constituted such a viable general research collection.
References
Google, “Google Checks Out Library Books,” press release, Dec. 14, 2004, www.google.com/press/pressrel/print_library.htmlnFor an example, see the agreement between the University of Michigan and Google, “Cooperative Agreement” (n.d.), www.lib.umich.edu/mdp/um-google-cooperative-agreement.pdfnKaren Coyle, “Google Books as Library,” online posting, Nov. 22, 2008, Coyle's InFormation, http://kcoyle.blogspot.com/2008_11_01_archive.htmlnSee, for example, Committee on Institutional Cooperation and Google, “Cooperative Agreement” (n.d.), www.cic.net/Home/Projects/Library/BookSearch/CIC-Google.aspxnMiguel Helft, “Microsoft Will Shut Down Book Search Program,”
New York Times
, Technology section, May 24, 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/technology/24soft.htmlnGoogle, “Google Checks Out Library Books,” press release, Dec. 14, 2004, www.google.com/press/pressrel/print_library.htmlnMichael A. Keller, University Librarian, Stanford University, quoted on Google Book Search Library Partners, http://books.google.com/googlebooks/partners.htmlnThe University of Michigan's workflow is illustrated in a flow chart, “Michigan Digitization Project Workflow,” www.lib.umich.edu/files/services/mdp/MDPflowchart_v3.pdfnInternational Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Section on Acquisition and Collection Development, “Guidelines for a Collection Development Policy Using the Conspectus Model,” (2001), http://archive.ifla.org/VII/s14/nd1/gcdp-e.pdfnThe items are IC-3, “The printed library materials I need for my work,” IC-4, “The electronic information resources I need,” and IC-8, “The print and/or electronic journal collections I require for my work.” On the 2008 survey, the gap on IC-3 slipped back into the positive territory it had occupied in 2002, but the importance of this is difficult to determine. Standard deviations on these items are large—typically between 1.9 and 2.2—making detecting and measuring trends difficult. The ARL LibQual+ notebooks for 2002 to the present can be examined at www.libqual.org/Publications/all.cfm?PubType=11nWalt Crawford, “Libraries and Google/Google Book Search: No Competition!” online posting, June 21, 2006, Google Librarian Central, www.google.com/librariancenter/articles/0606_03.htmlnBrian Lavoie, Lynn Silipigni Connaway, Lorcan Dempsey, '“Anatomy of Aggregate Collections: The Example of Google Print for Libraries,”' D-Lib Magazine 11 no. 9 (2005): (accessed Sept. 18, 2009).www.dlib.org/dlib/september05/lavoie/09lavoie.htmlnBrian F. Lavoie, Roger C. Schonfeld, '“Books without Boundaries: A Brief Tour of the System-wide Print Book Collection,”' Ubiquity 7 no. 37 (2006): (accessed Sept. 18, 2009).www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v7i37_books.htmlnUniversity of Michigan and Google, “Cooperative Agreement.”nCoyle, “Google Books as Libraries.”nLavoie, Connaway, and Dempsey, “Anatomy of Aggregate Collections.”nBritish Library, Help for Library Researchers, English Short Title Catalogue—Introduction, www.bl.uk/reshelp/findhelprestype/catblhold/estcintro/estcintro.htmlnEltjo Buringh, Jan Luiten van Zanden, '“Charting the ‘Rise of the West’: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, a Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries,”' The Journal of Economic History 69 no. 2 (2009): 409-45 (accessed Sept. 18, 2009).http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0022050709000837nLavoie and Schonfeld, “Books without Boundaries.”nRobert B. Townsend, “Google Books: What's Not to Like?“ online posting, April 30, 2007, AHA Today, http://blog.historians.org/articles/204/google-books-whats-not-to-likenKaren Coyle, '“Mass Digitization of Books,”' Journal of Academic Librarianship 32 no. 6 (2006): 641-45 (accessed Feb. 9, 2010).http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2006.08.002nPublic Libraries in the United States of America
(Washington: GPO, 1876): 1:760, www.archive.org/details/publiclibrariesi00unitrichnCharles C. Jewett, Notices of Public Libraries in the United States of America (Washington, D.C: Smithsonian Institution 1851): 192- (accessed Sept. 18, 2009).nJewett,
Notices of Public Libraries
, 762–73.nCatalogue of the Library of the Boston Athenæum, 1807–1871
(Boston: The Athenæum, 1874–1882).n The History of the Boston Athenæum (Cambridge, Mass: Metcalf and Co 1851): 12- (accessed Sept. 18, 2009).nJewett,
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, 22.nEdward Edwards,
Memoirs of Libraries
(London: Trübner & Co., 1859): 2:194, http://books.google.com/books?id=TH4NAAAAQAAJnJames Lyman Whitney, '“Considerations as to a Printed Catalog in Book Form for the Boston Public Library,”' The Library Journal 24 (1899): 10 (accessed Sept. 18, 2009).http://books.google.com/books?id=ggcCAAAAYAAJnCatalogue of the Library of the Boston Athenæum, 1807–1871
.nAnthony Panizzi, “Rules for the Compilation of the Catalogue,”
Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum
, (London, 1841): 1:[v]–ix; Charles Ammi Cutter, “Explanations,”
Catalogue of the Library of the Boston Athenæum
, 1807–1871 (Boston: The Athenæum, 1874–1882): 1:page following title page, http://books.google.com/books?id=Zbjcm5OGlsICnIFLA Study Group on the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records,
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records: Final Report
, UBCIM Publications-New Series, vol. 19(Munich: K.G. Saur, 1998): 17–25, www.ifla.org/files/cataloguing/frbr/frbr.pdfnIbid., 74.nAssocation of Research Libraries, ARL Library Data Tables 2007–08, worksheet “coll1,” www.arl.org/bm∼doc/08tables.xlsnIFLA Study Group,
Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records
, 74.nCharles Evans, American Bibliography: A Chronological Dictionary of All Books, Pamphlets, and Periodical Publications Printed in the United States Of America from the Genesis of Printing in 1639 Down to and Including the Year 1820 (New York: P. Smith 1941–67) Early American Imprints, Series I: Evans, 1639–1800, nA Z-test is a statistical test used to calculate the probability that a given sample result lies within the range of results that one would expect if the only effect present was the operation of chance. A results outside this range suggests that something other than the operation of chance is contributing to that result.nn
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