Stephen Rhind-Tutt, President, Alexander Street Press, L.L.C Developments: New forms of Digital Content Presented to the Council on Library and Information Resources 2005 Sponsor’s Symposium April 18th, 2005

Overview Google – positive or negative? A potential response for publishers (and libraries) Specific examples Indexing Linking Comprehensiveness

Google “Google's mission is to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.” (Google Corporate Information Web page: February, 2005)

How to view Google? “those who succumb to the commercial influence are building a monster who, like Frankenstein, will slay his creator…” A siren calling us to wreck ourselves on the rocks of mediocrity A superman to rescue scholarship and put it firmly in the public domain

The cautionary tale of radio… Local, active, independent, “free,” chaotic, amateur 1920 – Some commercial, some non-profit, passive 1940 – Network domination (RCA, NBC), 98% commercial From 1921 to 1936, 202 licenses were issued to non-profit stations. By 1937, only 38 were still operating. (Selling Radio: The Commercialization of American Broadcasting, , Susan Smulyan, Smithsonian Institute Press, 1994.)

The challenge By 2010, the web will contain 90% of published works prior to 1923 Majority of works published to 2010 > 20 billion pages of , phone logs, databases, blogs, and Web sites (currently 8 billion) > 1 billion photographs > 20 million facsimile pages of manuscripts > 10 million audio files > 1 million video files

Objections to Google Print 1.Operational Will they be able to digitize all this material? What quality will it have? When will it be available? 2.Technical / legal With so many hits won’t content get lost? OCR will never get beyond 98% or so…(i.e. several errors per page) Will they allow others to index, copy, and crawl the material? 3.Philosophical Won’t commercial priorities conflict with scholarly ones? As a de facto monopoly they’ll become too powerful. What happens to quality when search supplants content? Secrecy and commercialism will hurt scholarship 4.Experiential What about NlightN, Knowledge Network, Questia, NetLibrary…?

But… Rather than trying to work out why it won’t work…let’s assume that it (or something like it) will work out and see what the world looks like… If it works, Google will deliver 30 times the content delivered by EEBO, ECO, Evans, Shaw-Shoemaker and similar initiatives at no charge to end-users…

Another perspective Netscape Microsoft Google Yahoo Amazon Many others… Have helped and will help

It will all be available in digital form It will not cost too much Many more people will use it It will be enriched through better display, better integration, better links, better context, etc., etc… Good for publishersGood for librarians Good for “society” Where we’re headed

Evolution of publisher tasks Fading Growing Typesetting Printing Print Monograph Print Directory Public Domain Reprints Simple, One database Search Rare and unpublished material Linking Licensing Free materials Semantic indexing Process integration Unified Search software Workflow tools Warehousing Community Building Asset Management

Evolution of publisher tasks Fading Growing Typesetting Printing Print monograph Print directory Public domain reprints Simple, one database search Rare and unpublished material Linking Licensing Free materials Semantic indexing Process integration Unified search software Workflow tools Warehousing Community building Asset management Commissioning? Editorial? Quality? Selection?

With literally billions of pages… What tools will we need ? Beyond paper Higher quality More comprehensive Discipline specific High functionality links Community-centric Semantically organized

Where we’re headed After Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom, Gene Bellinger, Durval Castro, Anthony Mills. Who, What, When, Where? Therefore Why?

What tools will we need? Discipline specific Selection and quality Interactive Community centric More comprehensive (in copyright, rare, unpublished) High-functionality links Semantically organized

“Semantic” indexing Tim Berners-Lee and James Hendler in Scientific American, May 2001 “… an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation.” Represents a quantum shift in the functionality of the web

The strain on keyword search Question: “Martin Luther King” Google:– 8.3m hits Google Scholar: 7.8k First hit: Development of a research strategy for assessing the ecological risk of endocrine disruptors. GT Ankley, RD Johnson, G Toth, LC Folmar, NE …US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Division 26 W Martin Luther King Dr Cincinnati, OH Yahoo: 7.4m hits Alta Vista: 7.3m hits

“Semantic” indexing Collection Series Book or Volume Chapter Page Word Where ? When ? What ? Who ? Traditional indexing > “Semantic” indexing >

Increases in utility Access Keyword Search Fielded Search Semantic Search Do you have the book titled… All mentions of “Star Wars” All mentions of “Star Wars” in texts about Reagan published in 1985 All mentions of “Star Wars” by Reagan in speeches he delivered in 1985

North American Theatre Online 40,000 pages of reference works for American and Canadian Theatre Detailed information and links on –25,000 plays and screenplays –20,000+ authors –15,000+ productions –2,500+ production companies –2,800+ theatres –Over 5,000 resources (playbills, posters, ephemera) –15,000 characters within plays Integrates all ASP databases and material freely available on the Web

The “real” world Play Author Production Stills Playbills Production Venue Director Lighting Set Designers Theater Performance Location Production Company Producer Texts Criticism Cast List Performers Posters Ephemera Scenes Acts Characters Dramatis Personae

The virtual world Author Birth date Death date Birth Place Death Place Nationality Occupation Awards (38 fields) Theater District Location Capacity Style Etc… (18 fields) Company Name Productions Performers Etc… (14 fields) Production Director Theater Cast # of Perfs. Lighting Costumes Etc… (47 fields) Characters Plays Age Author Performer Etc… (30 fields) Scenes Where When Setting Subject Etc… (41 fields) Resources Play Director Theater Production Co. Character Scene Etc… (45 fields) Texts Keyword Author Date Written Date Published Production (67 fields)

“All scenes performed in South Africa discussing AIDS from 1980 to 1990” Author Birth date Death date Birth Place Death Place Nationality Occupation Awards (38 fields) Theater District Location Capacity Style Etc… (18 fields) Company Name Productions Performers Etc… (14 fields) Production Director Theater Cast # of Perfs. Lighting Costumes Etc… (47 fields) Characters Plays Age Author Performer Etc… (30 fields) Scenes Where When Setting Subject Etc… (41 fields) Resources Play Director Theater Production Co. Character Scene Etc… (45 fields) Texts Keyword Author Date Written Date Published Production (67 fields)

Alexander Street Databases Materials free on the Web OPAC Context

Higher value linkages Loosely Held Tightly Held Free Websites Loosely integrated Tightly integrated Refuse to License License widely License widely and be a Licensor

Higher value links Semantic indexing and keyword searching of more than 3,000 oral history collections Represents the personal histories of some 300,000 people Value: –Context –Selection –Search power –Licensed material –Integration Higher value linkages

Context and selection

Search Power

Organized Results

Copyright and comprehensiveness Public Domain Films Plays Stills rights Residuals Story rights Music rights Foreign rights Song rights Screenplay rights Print rights Electronic rights Soundtrack rights Performance rights Books Music No rights reserved Mechanicals Geographic restrictions Composer Label

Library and publisher opportunity 1. Understand: View conceptual relationships (mapping terms to concepts) 2. Explore: Move from one concept to another with ease (browse tables of contents) 3. Discover: Answer questions you’ve never been able to (never before published content + Semantic indexing) 4. Learn: Test hypotheses and see if they’re correct

Libraries, publishers and technologists New form of publishing Publishing Technology Librarianship For more information: