BOOKS; The Case For Books

In Robert Darnton’s 2009 book, “The Case For Books Past, Present and Future,” the ubiquitous, Marion the Librarian, when asked about what it’s like to be a librarian, says, “It’s all about power and money.” Yeah right, you might be thinking. Really, according to Darnton it is all about power and money which essentially means librarians need the money to purchase information and when they have it they exercise the power of access. However it’s not quite that simple because many other forces both political and economic, as well as public policy, can figure into this money and power equation. All this power and money stuff equals out to mean: what is the future of information access especially books both print and electronic? And what about this thorny issue of e-books? How will they affect the printed word? And then what about google and its project to digitize millions of books? Google looms big in Darnton’s book. He seems to like the access that Google can give the public to thousands of books, but also fears putting that access into the hands of just one commercial giant. Hmm does the smell of filthy lucre waft up from all this Google digitizing? People familiar with scientific publishing know about monopoly. Also included in these Google musings is an excellent assessment of the Google Book settlement, if you are so inclined.. But Darnton’s book is not just about Google, instead we get an eclectic collection of essays covering: the history of reading, the Gutenberg Project, the publishing industry, the archiving of information, the future of libraries, and open access to name a few. Darnton sums up his book by saying that it is an argument about books in the digital environment, their place and their access. Well other topics, although related, get covered as well and this is for the good as it makes for an interesting thought provoking read for any book lover. In the end, Darnton believes books will not disappear, but may change format, morphing into something different, just as they have done in the past. As Marion the Librarian says: “its all about power and money.”