ReadWriteWeb

The public library may be one of this nation's most important cultural and civic institutions. Yet it faces a number of threats - budget crises at the state and local level and the shift in the publishing industry from print to digital books. Of course, the library is more than just a repository for books - paper or otherwise. And even as libraries move to embrace more digital content, the local library will (hopefully) persist as a community center and as a portal to Internet resources.

But efforts are underway to create a DIgital Public Library of America, an online library . The project's steering committee have announced a "beta sprint," asking people to weigh in on what they think this library should look like. Librarians, archivists, developers, and the general public have been asked to contribute "ideas, models, prototypes, technical tools, user interfaces," and so on to the project, helping design how the DPLA might index and provide access to the digital content.

A group of 15 authors and publishers and two organizations in India have filed a formal objection to the Google Books Settlement.

The Indian Reprographic Rights Organisation and the Federation of Indian Publishers and these 15 individuals join a panoply of international entities who have objected to Google's ambitious and controversial plan to scan as many books as possible throughout the world. Though the search and Web app giant's scheme would create a vast online library, it may also infringe on the rights of content creators and has created a lengthy international legal battle.

Google's vision for Google Books obviously goes far beyond the controversial Google Book Search settlement with the Authors Guild and the AAP. The Google Books settlement mostly dealt with the past and out-of-print books. In a talk at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last night, however, Google Books' engineering director Dan Clancy laid out a clearer vision of the company's plans for Google Books for the first time. Among other things, the company hopes to create its own electronic bookstore for in-print books. In Google's vision, publishers would partner with the company and offer all of their books through Google and through traditional retailers.