2008/9/25 Klaus Graf <klausgraf(a)googlemail.com>om>:
I fully disagree with Schlottmann.
1. Nicholas Baker has shown in its book "Double Fold"
http://delicious.com/Klausgraf/doublefold that microfilms are not a
substitution for the original newspapers. And digitization isn't, too.
I sympathise greatly with his viewpoint, but I wouldn't go so far as
to say his book clearly "shows" anything beyond that he is passionate
on the subject. It's a polemic, not an analysis; I gave up reading it
half-way through because I was becoming frustrated with the one-sided
approach.
2. National Libraries might have the duty to digitize
newspapers but
if they don't do it or if they cooperate with toll access companies
like the British Library
http://newspapers.bl.uk/? The Public Domain
belongs to us all!
The budgets of libraries, especially big institutions, are shrinking
continually. We can't just say "oh, they should do this, they should
do that" - the money has to come from somewhere.
Digitisation isn't cheap; cataloguing and indexing of digitised
material isn't cheap. If these institutions don't get additional funds
from somewhere for the explicit purpose of digitisation, then they'll
*only* be able to do it as a commercial venture like that, or as some
kind of partnership program (as with Google &c).
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk