December 18, 2009

Library groups urge the Justice Dept to step in on GoogleBS

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Three major American library associations have asked the U.S. Justice Department “to oversee Google’s plans to create a massive digital library to prevent an excessively high price for institutional subscriptions,” according to a Reuters wire story.

The American Library Association, the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries say there is “unlikely to be an effective competitor to Google’s massive project in the near term” and that the DOJ should urge the federal court overseeing the Google Book Settlement to ” use its oversight authority to prevent abusive pricing of the online book project.”

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.

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