holy freaking CRAP! good news about public domain futures

This is great news, says Ryan [and me]. Though come on, how secret is it if it’s in the Times?

Google has embarked on an ambitious secret effort known as Project Ocean, according to a person involved with the operation. With the cooperation of Stanford University, the company now plans to digitize the entire collection of the vast Stanford Library published before 1923, which is no longer limited by copyright restrictions.

kids in the library

I like kids. They are some of my favorite patrons. However, on school days, when the library is full of them, I like them less. Moreso when I feel like they’ve been dumped there and don’t want to be there any more than I’d like them to be wandering bored in front of the refdesk. Apparently [and I pretty much knew this] this is not a phenomenon singular to our library. It’s a social problem, and a bad one. [thanks all]