Assistive Technology: Libraries and Google Books By Carlos Bulling

      You may think that Google Books would remain a rival to the library. However, the University of Georgia library has decided to work with Google to digitize 120,000 books! In fact, Google Books has partnered with over sixty libraries as well as publishers and authors. This helps students and researchers to access knowledge that helps them better understand the world, according to University Librarian and Associate Provost Toby Graham. Some volumes such as those on shipping registers go back as far as 1764. Additionally, these books will be more available to the world, as Google Books partnerships manager Ben Bunnell exclaims (Williams, 2019). Google Books has also inspired similar services due to the strength of its presence. Norway introduced Bookshelf, particularly for the National Library of Norway, which houses the literary heritage of Norway in digital books ranging until 2001. Bookshelf improves upon Google Books in that it attempts to retain bibliographic information and professional bibliographic standards from the analog where Google forgo them for speed and efficiency. Researchers found that seven percent of the Norwegian population use Bookshelf, an amount higher than those who use Google Books. Furthermore, more men use Google Books than women, and the population that uses the services by Google Books are mainly young people (Gran et al., 2019). As has been the case for over two decades, however, Google's plans are much more ambitious!

    Google plans to store the world's information in a universal library that someone at a terminal can access, according to former chief engineer Dan Clancy (Jones, 2017). However, as the popularity of Bookshelf shows, Google Books could use some improvements to make it more useful for the libraries it serves, including upgrading the bibliographic component. Without these updates, Google Books will see itself recycled by other programs who draw from its features and improve upon them, as the popularity of Bookshelf in Norway indicates. This is not a bad position for Google Books to be in, as it closes deals with libraries it is being used as an inspiration for other software, demonstrating the usefulness of Google Books. Ultimately, however, to avoid being another Google product that is promoted for a while, inspires other services, and disappears, Google Books must update its software for the libraries it serves. Possibly even rebrand itself or create a sister brand of Google Books specifically for libraries. With improvements upon its software tailored for libraries Google will win a race its already competing in and will be an indispensable part of state-of-the-art libraries!

References

Gran, A.-B., Røssaak, E., & Kristensen, L.-B. K. (2019). Digital infrastructure for diversity—On digital bookshelf and Google Books. Journal of Arts Management, Law & Society, 49(3), 171–187. https://doi-org.ezproxy.palomar.edu/10.1080/10632921.2019.1581114

Jones, E. (2017). The public library movement, the digital library movement, and the large-scale digitization initiative: Assumptions, intentions, and the role of the public. Information & Culture, 52(2), 229–263. https://doi-org.ezproxy.palomar.edu/10.7560/IC52205

Williams, C. (2019, October 18). UGA partners with Google Books for digital access. UGA today. https://news.uga.edu/uga-partners-with-google-books-for-digital-access/