Internet Librarian
Susan Miles · eLucidate · 2006
Transcending Boundaries: Information Technologies and Strategies for the 21stCentury" was the seventh conference in this series, held in London during October 2005.50 speakers were involved over the two days, so this is by necessity only a brief overview of a select few of the presentations I listened to.If you want to follow up on any of the others, many of the speakers have allowed their PowerPoint slides to be available via the conference website here: http://www.Internet-librarian.com/2005Presentations/.The two keynote speeches are worth highlighting, because even some months on, their relevance has not diminished.The opening keynote was given by Ronald Milne, acting director of Oxford University Library Services & Bodley's Librarian, describing their role within the Google Library Project.In addition to a description of how this came about and how it fits into their overall remit, the questions from the floor elicited some more specific information.Twenty per cent of the library's stock is in 'uncut' form, so has never been looked at or read!They view the Google collaboration as an access project rather than as a preservation project because it is not about the preservation of the actual item.Ronald Milne did raise the possibility of developing a 'book on demand' type of service with copies nicely bound, which was reflected in January 2006 with the idea of an online book store that Google's CEO Eric Schmidt told reporters about at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.Partnership possibilities involving Bodley's content was another question raised; apparently working with public organisations is a possibility, although covenants with Google would be required.