tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5764290.post4293006111530629957..comments2024-03-22T08:01:16.236-04:00Comments on Rebecca Tushnet's 43(B)log: A historian's take on Google BooksUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5764290.post-40781497540800524132007-05-02T10:14:00.000-04:002007-05-02T10:14:00.000-04:00Rebecca:I posted this on one of our internal lists...Rebecca:<BR/>I posted this on one of our internal lists at H-Net and got this rather unfortunate response from the director of MATRIX...the humanities computing center and host of H-Net.<BR/><BR/>Matthew Gilmore<BR/><BR/><BR/>From: Mark Kornbluh Mark.Kornbluh@matrix.msu.edu<BR/><BR/>Friends:<BR/><BR/>I'd like to comment on the review of Google Books posted on the<BR/>AHA blog. I've been at several meetings lately where similar views have<BR/>been expressed. What is missing in all of these critiques, from my point<BR/>of view, is a broader understanding of the potential of what Google is<BR/>doing. First of all, the universities that have provided Google with the<BR/>books to digitize will all be getting copies of the scans back from<BR/>Google. They are each planning major projects to make their digitized<BR/>books available. In doing this, these libraries are driven by their own<BR/>missions -- not by Google's -- They plan value added services that go<BR/>way beyond Google's commercial interests. These include scholars' and<BR/>students' toolboxes including citation linking. There is reason to<BR/>believe that the value of the Google Books effort will be significantly<BR/>enhanced by what these libraries will be doing with the digitized<BR/>content.<BR/><BR/>Second, we also need to think about the scale of Google's efforts. Yes,<BR/>there are errors and limitations, but thanks to these efforts and those<BR/>of others, we will shortly have access to a scale of digitized books<BR/>that would otherwise still be far in the future. This will allow for<BR/>experimentation in text mining, tracking, and linking that has never<BR/>been possible before. No one knows to what extent new digital humanities<BR/>tools with enhance and change the humanities in the 21st century, but we<BR/>absolutely need databases like Google Books to develop these tools and<BR/>explore the future. (Google has offered its digital files for such<BR/>research.)<BR/><BR/>Mark Kornbluh<BR/>Director, MATRIX<BR/>Michigan State UniversityUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03586460533618272763noreply@blogger.com