The Googlization of Everything

I'm pretty sure I remember the first time I discovered Google books. It was probably around 2007 during my Undergraduate career. I thought it was amazing! I would get really mad when there was only a Preview option of the book. I didn't use Google books to read leisurely. I mostly used it as a reference for school, or a random fact on health, well random chapter. Mainly I used it for school. And although I did cite the source, never did I site it as a digital book. It was five ears ago, I don't even think MLA had an option to cite a digital book. Did copyright cross my mind? Yes. Did I consider the future of libraries? Maybe.

Looking at it now, Siva Vaidhyanathan's article "The Googlization of Everything and the Future of Copyright" is a bit apocalyptic. It was written in 2007, just as I was becoming aware of Google Books. Vaidhyanathan's says that the Google Library Project was announced in 2004. Google and participating libraries were able to digitize millions of books in 3 years. Amazing. Reading the article now, I am curious if in fact there were copyright laws put into place. I notice that more and more it is hard to find a complete book on Google. Most are previews. Some previews are almost the complete book with a few pages missing. Some are just a few pages from a 200 page book. Although Vaidhyanathan tries to remain fair, it seems pretty evident that he was hoping copyright laws would prevent the growth of Google books. Which I think is what happened. Google books certainly didn't become the threat the article was making it out to be. Most of this is probably due to the success of Kindle, ipad, and other eReaders.

On the other hand, the privacy issues brought up in Karen A. Coombs article "Protecting User Privacy in the Age of Digital Libraries" is still very evident. It is interesting to see that in 2005 librarians were concerning themselves with issues that the public had not yet fully become aware with. It makes me proud to be entering such an ethical profession. Most of the processes Coombs practiced in her case study seem to be standards now. Although, as is very clear, there will always be a battle with privacy and how technology is compromising out privacy.

Web Accessibility & DCPL

Last year I worked in the San Francisco Unified School District with the disabled population. This included both the mentally and physically disabled population. Mostly all classrooms were equipped with computers with accessibility tools. As we were on the tour I was thinking about the young adult population that I worked with. They used some of the tools described, but mostly I was wondering if the teachers I worked with knew about all these programs.

In one classroom of severely disable students the teacher utilized the San Francisco Public Library’s Library for the Deaf and Blind. They have a room similar to DCPL’s Adaptive services, with a substantial collection of books on tape, brail books, as well as large print books. There were probably about two accessible computers. We never used them, and I’m sure the technology was not as good as D.C’s Public Library.  

With my experiences last year in mind, I was extremely impressed and pleased with the work that DCPL is doing, the Adaptive services Library is an incredible resource for any handicap person, whether physical, mental, temporary, or onset. It’s really pleasing to realize that many websites are accessible too. I realize its time consuming for people to review the websites to make sure they are accessible, but in this case, I prefer this method to having a program check for errors. It is very important that the websites are as accessible and easy to navigate as possible.