JMU not looking to partner with Google
By Katie Gaab, contributing writer
Posted on December 4, 2006

Despite Google’s latest addition, Book Search, JMU’s Carrier Library does not see a partnership with the Web site in the future.
 
“You must think of all the time and effort and technology it would require to do that,” said Ralph Alberico, dean of Libraries and Educational Technologies.
 
Book Search is a library that includes full texts of books. The University of Virginia was the most recent university to become library partners with Google in November.

There are currently eight other library partners using Google’s Book Search, including Harvard University, the University of Michigan and Oxford University.The purpose of the project is to allow researchers to search books by relevancy.

Instead of following in U.Va.’s footsteps, JMU is taking another route.

“Our collection overlaps with other larger universities like University of Virginia,” Alberico said. “We simply don’t have the resources or technology ourselves to do this, so we prefer to outsource our work. The strategy is to digitalize the more unique things.”

This past fall, Carrier Library has added Eighteenth Century Collections Online and American History and Culture Online: Sabin Americana with documents ranging from 1500 to 1926.

The next biggest project is the Historical JMU collection. Among the documents digitized are poster collections, president papers, Board of Visitors minutes and diplomas.
The availability of such information allows students and faculty to see what JMU was like during its first decade as an institution.

The digitizing of such unique documents is beneficial not only for the students, but for the documents themselves.
 
“We won’t have to handle documents that are fragile,” said Special Collections librarian Tracy Harter. “The big part of the reason we’re doing this is for preservation.”

Also, with the addition of e-Books, JMU has the license from publishers to allow students to view books and journals online. Jennifer Keach, head of Digital Services for Carrier Library, said there are two ways to go about this.

“Some we will buy as one-time purchases and have perpetual access to, while the others we have to pay a certain amount each year,” Keach said.

As a result of the addition of the online database, a librarian’s duties are shifting away from the card catalog and more toward teaching.

“We now have to be much more concerned with the quality of online information and the way students get to it,” Alberico said. “There are more people behind the scenes and jobs have become much more technical.”

The student response to Carrier Library’s online database is supportive so far.

“I think it would be beneficial, especially if they start to do this to the old books located in the stacks because they are usually really hard to find,” freshman Tara Vaezi said.

Sophomore Sarah Esterbrok added, “I think this is a good idea, because it doesn’t waste your time. You’ll be able to find better sources through this.”