Libraries shun deals to place books on Web

I had lunch today with Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, and he was a bit gleeful about today's front-page story in the New York Times: Libraries Shun Deals to Place Books on Web.

Several major research libraries have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books into computer databases, saying they are put off by restrictions these companies want to place on the new digital collections.

The research libraries, including a large consortium in the Boston area, are instead signing on with the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit effort aimed at making their materials broadly available. Libraries that agree to work with Google must agree to a set of terms, which include making the material unavailable to other commercial search services. Microsoft places a similar restriction on the books it converts to electronic form. The Open Content Alliance, by contrast, is making the material available to any search service.

As it should be, and why Brewster and his colleagues are right to feel proud at standing up to the restrictions imposed by the tech giants.