mdoneil writes “A google advertiser and user refers to google as a library which makes money- as opposed to real libraries, which lose money.
The Tampa Tribune reports on the search engine with interviews with several people including a lawyer who googles his prospective clients and dates.
To balance the story a public librarian was interviewed who stressed the need for authority.”
Here’s the quote:
“I’m an advertiser on Google, but if I came along and posted an article on the benefits of using retractable awnings, I’d be treated like anybody else on Google,” he said. “It’s a library, an Internet library, that’s successful and makes money – as opposed to real libraries, which lose money.“
$$$ Lost?
I don’t think so. We do more with less money then any search engine. According to an article in Infotrac from Apr 2003, estimates are that Google revenues would reach $400 million that year. When they went in big they got $27 million in venture capital funds. I have no idea what their annual costs are. All that money coming and going and while they offer a smoother running product its not all that different from big names search engines like Lycos or AltaVista. They don’t actually offer free internet access, like we do. They don’t offer full text encyclopedias like Britannica [not the dumbed-down online version], like we do. They don’t offer back issues of the local papers or the national ones, like we do. Medical encyclopedias and dictionaries, them:no us:yes. Car repair manuals, extensive history resources, state laws them:no us:yes. Community information, town reports, and children’s books galore, them:no us:yes. The list goes on and on and on…
All that money and they don’t offer jack.
What does Mr. Sanko mean?
I’m all for free enterprise and the small businessperson, but I have to wonder when I read a statement like Mr. Sanko’s. Libraries lose money? I suppose he means that public libraries don’t generate much income and are net consumers of public funds. Well, so is the vast majority of government, otherwise citizens wouldn’t have to pay taxes–they’d be receiving checks from the government. Unless one is an anarchist of some sort, one must concede that the government has certain legitimate functions and may levy taxes to support them as long as citizens elect those who determine the taxes. We might differ on what functions are legitimate, but that’s a different matter.
As for his equation of Google with a library, that speaks volumes [sic] about how many folks view libraries. I wish I knew how to make them understand what is different about libraries, and what it is that libraries uniquely provide.