[WikiEN-l] WP and Deep Web, was Re: Age fabrication and original research

[David Goodman]

If they are not in copyright, Open Libraries Intiiative and Google
Books are doing quite nicely;
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG



On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 8:52 PM, stevertigo <stvrtg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> David Goodman wrote:
>>> Quite apart from  the incredible range available from a research
>>> library, the great majority of *Wikipedians,* even experienced ones, do
>>> not use even those sources which are made available free from local
>>> public libraries to residents.
>
> Do these libraries *digitize* their books and make them available
> online? The paradigm shift is relevant: A keydrive full of PDFs is *so
> much easier to skateboard around with than a backpack full of wood
> industry products.
>
> -Stevertigo
> "and you who judge your freedom...
>
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Most major research libraries are engaged in digitization projects, at
least for their out-of-copyright material, via either Google Book
Search,   the Open content Alliance, or various similar projects. this
will of course make it much easier to deal with this material
online--it is already quite a bit easier than 2 years ago.

In-copyright material is quite another matter. See the WP articles on
Google Books Library Project and on Google Book Search Settlement
Agreement, which would need to be 100 X longer to really explain the
complexities involved. A good deal  of this material is in digital
form, or soon will be, but is not going to be available outside
libraries to the general public until copyright expires or the
copyright legislation is greatly altered. Public libraries will have
some of the material, but probably not much of it outside the library
building.

That most of us here regard this situation deplorable does not affect
the reality of it. Much material is sufficiently expensive to produce
that until there are arrangements to subsidize the production, they
cannot be realistically expected to be free for the reading. for the
problems involved, see the WP article on Open Access.

As for PDFs, consider 1/the amount of apparatus required to use them
as compared with that required to use printed books.  Several more
iteration of and 2/the general preference  of print for extensive
reading over any available electronic device--this may be a temporary
limitation, but we are talking about here and now, not 5 or 10 years
from now. Many university presses expect to make most of their income
from print on demand services.  Personally,   if I want to read a
paper from a journal I read it on screen; if I want to store a copy, I
store the pdf; if I want to really study it, I print it out. (3 years
ago I would store that printed copy, often in addition to the pdf, but
I no longer do, for I can always print another. ) Most 20 year olds I
know read them all on screen, so yes, there is a paradigm shift there.

I could talk about this for days, & I have been known to do so.