The “Google Five” Describe Progress, Challenges
Among other things learned by the original five libraries that signed up with Google to have their collections digitized is this gem: “About one percent of the Bodleian Library’s books have uncut pages, meaning they’ve never been opened.” I used to find books like this at Yale and felt quite bad for their authors. Imagine all of the effort that goes into writing a book–and then no one, for hundreds of years at Oxford or Yale (bookish places with esoteric interests, wouldn’t you say?), takes even a peek inside. Evidently the long tail doesn’t quite extend all the way.
I'm the Director of the 
[...] to scan tens of millions of books in dozens of research libraries? I have noted in this space the advantages and disadvantages of Google Books—sometimes both at one time. Heck, the only time this blog has [...]