The Google Books Settlement and the Future of Information Access

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The so-called “Google Books Settlement”, a proposed legal settlement agreement between Google and a group of publishers and authors, would allow Google to provide greater access to even more books than at present and to offer some new services.

Yet such a settlement would also have a profound influence on future digitization efforts, the marketplace for books, the role of libraries, scholarly research, and the general user's right to access information and maintain privacy.

It is important for academics, commercial information services, librarians, policy makers, and the public to understand both the opportunities and the risks that may flow from the October scheduled US District Court's fairness hearing in the case.

The School of Information is hosting a one-day conference on August 28th to address major issues arising from the proposed settlement. A series of panels will discuss:

• the right of the public to have access to works embraced by such a settlement
• the questions of privacy inevitably arising from creating and controlling access to such a collection
• the potential for and restrictions on research into the content and use of such a collection
• the quality of the content and the metadata surrounding it

This one-day conference will bring together a range of voices and opinions and will, it is hoped, lead to a more informed debate both before and following the court's decision.

Confirmed panelists include:

• Peter Brantley, Director of Access, Internet Archive
• Dan Clancy, Engineering Director, Google Book Search
• Colin Evans, Principal Data Wizard, Freebase.com, co-author of "Programming the Semantic Web"
• Dan Greenstein, Vice Provost for Academic Planning, Programs and Coordination in the Division of Academic Affairs, University of California Office of the President
• Carla Hesse, Dean of Social Sciences, College of Letters & Science, UC Berkeley
• Tom Leonard, University Librarian, UC Berkeley
• Mark Liberman, Trustee Professor of Phonetics in the Department of Linguistics, Professor of Computer and Information Science, and Director of the Linguistic Data Consortium at the University of Pennsylvania
• James Love, Director, Knowledge Ecology International
• Clifford Lynch, Director of the Coalition for Networked Information
• Angela Maycock, Office for Intellectual Freedom, American Library Association
• Geoffrey Nunberg, Adjunct Professor, School of Information, UC Berkeley
• Jim Pitman, Professor of Statistics, UC Berkeley
• Jason Schultz, Associate Director of the Samuelson Law, Technology & Public Policy Clinic at U.C. Berkeley School of Law; fellow, Electronic Frontier Foundation.
• Molly S. Van Houweling, Assistant Professor of Law, UC Berkeley
• Michael Zimmer, Assistant Professor, School of Information Studies; Associate, Center for Information Policy Research; University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Full conference schedule

Due to space limitations, the conference is by invitation only. For more information, please contact GBS@ischool.berkeley.edu.