Google Books is shutting down, or at least no longer available to the public. They’re telling users to “create a library” so we can continue using the books in our “library”. This is absurd. I always downloaded the books I found useful. Now I have them in my computer. Why would I want to keep them in the modifiable and deletable “cloud” when I have an unmodifiable and undeletable PDF in my own computer?
I don’t see much agitation and alarm in online circles. Substack is dominated by librarians and book fanciers who jack off to pictures of giant classic libraries full of giant classic books. (Moby Dick pics.) None of them have complained about the impending loss of the BIGGEST AND BEST library in the world.
This should be a business opportunity for REAL libraries.
They failed to implement the Google model before, now they could implement it on their own and make money without the Google middleman. Libraries had their own digital data web LONG before the NSA web. 100 years ago they built a network for interlibrary loans of physical books, first by mail, then by phone, then by digital terminals in the 1960s. College libraries could form a for-profit corporation, do their own scanning or perhaps pay Google for the existing scans, and then charge for access.
City libraries have become crash pads for homeless addicts. They could help to REFORM the homeless addicts by paying them to scan. It’s useful work with a visible product, worth paying for.
Here’s a chance to unkill two birds with one stone. Will anyone take it? No.
Polistra's Mill 