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Archives for October, 2008

The Google Settlement – From the Universal Library to the Universal Bookstore

If you think about it, a universal bookstore is a pretty cool idea. Bookstores are wonderful things. Anyone can walk into bookstore, take a book off a shelf, read in it, decide whether to buy it or forget about it, or get it from the library. The settlement announced today by Google, the Association of […]

“Less than perfect” is not always bad

In a recent paper prepared for the Boston Library Consortium, Richard Johnson decries the fact that some mass digitization arrangements between libraries and corporations have been “less than perfect.” The choices that we face are indeed less than perfect. We can choose purity and perfection, and not permit any restrictions on the use of scans […]

On the Meaning and Importance of Peer Review

In my previous post I briefly discussed peer review, which has been raised by many in the publishing industry as a justification for opposing the NIH mandate for deposit of articles into PubMed Central, and, more broadly, as a justification for the vigorous protection of publisher-held copyright in scholarly publications. In this post I discuss […]