Google to digitize millions of books

Many years ago, Howard Rheingold asked an interesting question. He was trying to get people to think about the possibilities of a world in which everything that was published was accessible on the Web. “Where is the Library of Congress”, he mused, “when it’s on your laptop?” In the old days, people had to come to the information. But one day it would be the other way round. Now it seems that day may be closer than we thought — thanks to Google.

Today’s Mercury News reports:

“Google is launching an ambitious effort to make digital copies of some of the world’s largest university library collections and will incorporate the texts into its vast Web index, apparently the largest project of its kind ever attempted.

As envisioned, almost anyone with a computer could instantly tap into enormous academic libraries — some with texts dating back centuries.

Stanford, Harvard and Oxford universities, as well as the University of Michigan and the New York Public Library, are participating in the program, which could span years and involve scanning and indexing well more than 10 million books and periodicals.”

One of the side effects of this project — as my friend Gerard points out — will be to reinforce the dominance of English as a global language. If I were the French government, I’d be negotiating with Google to digitise the contents of the Bibliotheque Nationale.

Head gear

Photographed at a school bazaar last week. The kids had been dressing up in Tudor costume.

Kerik redux

More on Bernard in today’s NYT. “In June 2000, two months before Bernard B. Kerik was appointed police commissioner, New York City’s top investigative agency learned that he had a social relationship with the owner of a New Jersey construction company suspected of having business ties to organized crime figures, city documents show. The city’s Department of Investigation took two days of testimony from Frank DiTommaso, the owner of the company, Interstate Industrial Corporation. It also formally interviewed Mr. Kerik himself.”

It goies without saying, of course, that “there is no indication that Mr. Kerik did anything illegal or improper”. Naturally. If there had been, surely St Rudolf [Guiliani] would never have appointed him New York’s Top Cop.

End of an era

My Observer column reflecting on IBM’s decision to sell its PC business to a Chinese company.

Wine online

The US is such a strange country. You can buy guns freely, but I’ve just discovered that it’s illegal to sell alcohol over interstate boundaries. This is, as you might expect, acting as a damper on e-commerce in the wine business. It also conflicts with the Constitution’s endorsement of free trade. So the Supreme Court is going to consider the issue. Wine buffs await the outcome with bated breaths. So, presumeably, do small wineries.