Well, guess what greeted me this morning after a 1 1/2 hr. commute into work through snow? (It is usually a 30 minute drive.)

The New York Times article "Google is Adding Major Libraries to Its Database."

Google entered into an agreement with Oxford University, Harvard, University of Michigan, Stanford, and the New York Public Library to scan their material, digitize it, and make it freely available online.
According to Michael A. Keller, Stanford University's head librarian, "Within two decades, most of the world's knowledge will be digitized and available, one hopes for free reading on the Internet, just as there is free reading in libraries today."

Me thinks, hmm didn't they already say that 20 years ago?

Ok I think this is kind of cool. I am very excited that librarians are involved in this project. This makes me think/hope/pray that this will be done right. I am not belittling non-librarians, it just seems that when it comes to organizing particular informational things, librarians tend to do it better. (Librarian's do it better...hmm should be a t-shirt slogan if it isn't already.)

Some obstacles or issues that I am concerned with are copyright/money and librarian roles. Copyright/money: For older material this is not as much of an issue, but for newer books, journal articles, and other copyrighted publications this could be a big issue. How is Google going to make this all available on the internet for free? My guess that is that a majority of these newer items will not be free.
Librarian roles: I said earlier that I am excited that librarians are involved in this project. My only concern is what will be the roles of librarians once these documents are available online for everyone. Don't get me wrong, I don't think librarians should hoard information as a ways of ensuring their longevity. I just think that librarians need to re-evaluated their roles as providers of information. Once Google has all of the information, Google will be the provider. What will librarians be, especially to the user who will think everything is online anyway? There needs to be greater push from librarians to have a greater presence in our academic and business society, heck our whole society.

What do you think? Read the article and share your thoughts.