Decius wrote:
] this author seems to be confused about the greater point,
] which is that books and buildings full of them
] are rapidly going the way of the horse and carriage.
]
] The ability to provide instant access to all of this
] information anywhere in the world will be a revolution
] in many quarters of the planet that have suffered for
] lack of knowledge.

Increasing the speed and ease of access to information is a commendable goal. For those who previously lacked access by any means, these new electronic capabilities can be quite transformative.

For those in developed countries with well-stocked public library systems and retail super-bookstores in every neighborhood, the digital library is definitely handy but ultimately less profound.

In the United States, access is basically a solved problem. While not perfectly efficient, the combination of Amazon, Borders, and the local public library have produced an effective solution.

The much harder problem, and one which the Google project as currently described would seem to do little to resolve, is the learning process itself. On a whim, I can go to the store or library and come home with a printed copy of Democracy in America in less than 30 minutes. Much of the effort of the "access" step is physical (getting to the store) rather than mental. However, it will take a substantially greater investment, both of time and mental effort, to actually read the book and incorporate de Tocqueville's insights into my worldview.

The specific mechanisms proposed by Google to assuage copyright concerns will exacerbate the already significant risks of full-text search. You can already see these problems with Google Print. By relying on keyword search as the index and interface into the library, a selection bias is introduced. By strictly limiting the ability of the reader to explore the rest of the book upon finding a "hit", the system substantially increases the likelihood that statements will be taken out of context and misunderstood by the reader.

Google and God's Mind