The Great Library of Googlexandria

Every now and then in a late night bull session, I argue that Yale could save millions of dollars if it just scanned its entire book collection into digital format, closed its libraries, and bought those new print-on-demand-machines. Well it appears that Google is teaming up with several major research libraries, including Harvard and Stanford, to do just that. The sheer amount of good this will potentially do for humanity is staggering. This combined with the development of digital booksthat are easy on the eyes, and the imminent development of e-paper could spell doom to the paper book by the end of the decade. However, before this happens a new business model must be created for books and copyright issues must be sorted out. The new business model must ensure that there will be money to continue to pay for books to be written in the future, while allowing everyone access to everything that has ever been written. This won't be easy, considering we still haven't done it with movies and music. Books could be much more difficult because there are so many more copyright holders and so much more material. Here are some potential options as I see them: 1) Google makes a deal with as many publishers as it can to make books available for free and displayed with advertising. The revenue from this would be much lower from each read than with selling a book, a rough estimate would be about $.10 of ad revenue per book read. However, publishers would save in printing and distribution costs and have far more volume. Publishers would gain money from people who were reading the books with advertising instead of reading for free from a library or a friend's copy. The biggest problems would be figuring out a way to make advertising work without people blocking it out. Also specialized books have lower volume and higher prices and could not be made available this way. 2) Have local libraries purchase access to the Great Digital Library. Library card holders could then access the database through their local library. This is similar to what already happens with magazines and newspapers. I can go online with my free Boston Public Library card and read the back issues of most popular magazines. With my Yale account, I can read pretty much any periodical and journal that has ever been written. The biggest problem here is what would happen to the brick and mortar libraries? Why would the library choose to provide something that would make it obsolete? Of course, libraries have shown an abililty to adopt and could become more of a center for using computers, workshops, and community events. In the long term though, local libraries would close and publishers would raise prices for the subcription to compensate. Bigger libraries would plead for relief from the state to help pay for all the suburbanites who were getting library cards to access the book subscription. Eventually, the accounts would consolidate so that all books would be paid for from state or federal taxes. As I think of more ways a business model could work, I'll post them.