Libraries in the Digital Age

Digitizing books and a short history of publishing
By Corianne Way

One major issue libraries in the digital age now face is the digitization of materials, especially books. There is a lot of debate considering the digitization of books--there are so many arguments for and against it. Some of the benefits of widespread digitization of books include:

Affordability Efficiency Availability

On the other hand, some argue that digitization devalues books and puts more power in the hands of publishers. Authors are--justifiably so--worried about issues regarding copyright infringements.

The physical ‘book’ as we know it today has a long and interesting history and the format of books is constantly evolving. Originally, there were no books. People wrote on tablets, scrolls, on wood or bamboo, or sheets of papyrus for a very long time. It was done this way for centuries, until parchment and paper was invented. Up until the 15h century books were handwritten. This would be done by slaves if you were in ancient Rome, or by monks who lived in old scriptoriums in Europe. The pages were then stitched together and bound to a cover that would have been made out of wood or leather. This process was slow and tedious, which made books incredibly valuable.

Illuminated Manuscript from the Kahn Academy 

Gutenberg printed his bible in 1456. Then, after the industrial revolution took off the printing of books started to become more widespread. Starting the 19th century publishing started to develop as a major industry. In America in the 20th century, books started to become mass produced as they were printed thousands at a time and shipped overnight to bookstores around the country. Traditionalists said that this was a threat to the value of the book and struggling authors, similar to how some find ebooks threatening today.

An Original Gutenberg Bible From the Library of Congress

All of this is to say that the way that books are made and how they are read is constantly evolving, and it has been for centuries, since they were first invented.

In 2000, Google began an enormous digitization project. Their goal was to digitize every book ever written--and they got pretty close. How did they do this? They went to libraries, checked out their books truckloads at a time and ran them through a state-of-the art scanner. They claimed that they were able to do this by fair-use copyright laws.

High Speed Book Scanner; 250 pages per minute

Google was discouraged in the courts for taking advantage of authors rights and copyright laws. The courts agree with Google that they are protected by fair-use, but Google was facing so many lawsuits that they had to shut down the project.

Google has digitized over 25 million books, but they are locked away and cannot be accessed by the public. James Sommers (2017) says to release these books, “would be to erect one of the great humanitarian artifacts of all time.” He calls this the “Modern Day Alexandria”-- a library that contains almost every book ever written and can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Whether or not you agree with the digitization of books, you have to admit that would be pretty awesome! And one has to ask, is this just the next step in the evolution of books?

Books. (2005). In B. Lenman, & H. Marsden (Eds.), Chambers dictionary of world history (3rd ed.). London, UK: Chambers Harrap. Retrieved from http://prozy.palomar.edu.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login?qurl=http%3A%2F%2Fsearch.credoreference.com%2Fcontent%2Fentry%2Fchambdictwh%2Fbooks%2F0%3FinstitutionId%3D5324

"Digitizing Books." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2015. Opposing Viewpoints in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/PC3010999242/OVIC?u=cclc_palomar&xid=1f655f36. Accessed 20 Apr. 2017.

Sommers, J. (2017, April 20). Torching the modern-day Library of Alexandria. The Atlantic. Retrieved April 23, 2017, from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2017/04/the-tragedy-of-google-books/523320/.