Re: [ARSCLIST] Cataloguing still :-)--was: Cataloguing again--ARSC responsibility?

[Don Cox <doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 31/08/06, Karl Miller wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Aug 2006, steven c wrote:
> 
>> It will be interesting to see how Google fares with their idea of
>> "digitize every book we can get away with and set up a search engine
>> therefor!" iTunes (and its ilk) create their half-vast music files by
>> offering compressed versions, as well as (being "pay-to-play"
>> operations) charging for each one downloaded. This, of course,
>> defeats the idea of a "public" library/system...but may be forced on
>> those by authors and other creators, and/or copyright law changes.
>> Remember. this is the XXI Jahrhundert...and money isn't everything,
>> it's the ONLY thing!
> 
> Which of course outlines some very basic challenges to libraries.
> Assuming they still care about providing free access to the public,
> how will they do that in the digital information environment,
> especially as they seem to be trying to become publishers by
> digitizing holdings. I really don't understand what library
> administrators see as the future of libraries.

I checked out a couple of Google's PDFs.

One is Jerrold's "Mrs Caudle's Curtain Lectures". This has been scanned
from a good copy and is presented as a collection of bitmap images - if
you wanted a text file, you would have to OCR the images yourself.

The resolution of the bitmaps is enough for reading the text, but
nowhere near high enough to reproduce the illustrations (wood
engravings) accurately. As I am interested in the history of
illustration, this would not be useful for research.

As with master tapes, there is a need to preserve the original objects.
Lossy copies are not enough.

And how about those who are researching the history of printing, or of
book-binding?


If the University is purely a teaching institution, with no research,
then none of this matters - although I don't think such a place can
really be called a university. 

Regards
-- 
Don Cox
doncox@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx