The politics of mass digitization PDF
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The Politics of Mass Digitization The Politics of Mass Digitization Nanna Bonde Thylstrup The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in ITC Stone Sans Std and ITC Stone Serif Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Thylstrup, Nanna Bonde, author. Title: The politics of mass digitization / Nanna Bonde Thylstrup. Description: Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018010472 | ISBN 9780262039017 (hardcover : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Library materials--Digitization. | Archival materials--Digitization. | Copyright and digital preservation. Classification: LCC Z701.3.D54 T49 2018 | DDC 025.8/4--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018010472 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Acknowledgments vii I Framing Mass Digitization 1 1 Understanding Mass Digitization 3 II Mapping Mass Digitization 35 2 The Trials, Tribulations, and Transformations of Google Books 37 3 Sovereign Soul Searching: The Politics of Europeana 57 4 The Licit and Illicit Nature of Mass Digitization 79 III Diagnosing Mass Digitization 101 5 Lost in Mass Digitization 103 6 Concluding Remarks 133 Notes 139 References 173 Index 195 Acknowledgments A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s A c k n o w l e d g m e n t s © Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyAll Rights Reserved I am very grateful to all those who have contributed to this book in various ways. I owe special thanks to Bjarki Valtysson, Frederik Tygstrup, and Peter Duelund, for their supervision and help thinking through this project, its questions, and its forms. I also wish to thank Andrew Prescott, Tobias Olsson, and Rune Gade for making my dissertation defense a memorable and thoroughly enjoyable day of constructive critique and lively discus- sions. Important parts of the research for this book further took place during three visiting stays at Cornell University, Duke University, and Columbia University. I am very grateful to N. Katherine Hayles, Andreas Huyssen, Timothy Brennan, Lydia Goehr, Rodney Benson, and Fred- ric Jameson, who generously welcomed me across the Atlantic and pro- vided me with invaluable new perspectives, as well as theoretical insights and challenges. Beyond the aforementioned, three people in particular have been instrumental in terms of reading through drafts and in pro- viding constructive challenges, intellectual critique, moral support, and fun times in equal proportions—thank you so much Kristin Veel, Hen- riette Steiner, and Daniela Agostinho. Marianne Ping-Huang has further offered invaluable support to this project and her theoretical and practi- cal engagement with digital archives and academic infrastructures contin- ues to be a source of inspiration. I am also immensely grateful to all the people working on or with mass digitization who generously volunteered their time to share with me their visions for, and perspectives on, mass digitization. This book has further benefited greatly from dialogues taking place within the framework of two larger research projects, which I have been for- tunate enough to be involved in: Uncertain Archives and The Past’s Future. I am very grateful to all my colleagues in both these research projects: viii Acknowledgments Kristin Veel, Daniela Agostinho, Annie Ring, Katrine Dirkinck-Holmfeldt, Pepita Hesselberth, Kristoffer Ørum, Ekaterina Kalinina Anders Søgaard as well as Helle Porsdam, Jeppe Eimose, Stina Teilmann, John Naughton, Jef- frey Schnapp, Matthew Battles, and Fiona McMillan. I am further indebted to La Vaughn Belle, George Tyson, Temi Odumosu, Mathias Danbolt, Mette Kia, Lene Asp, Marie Blønd, Mace Ojala, Renee Ridgway, and many others for our conversations on the ethical issues of the mass digitization of colo- nial material. I have also benefitted from the support and insights offered by other colleagues at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, Univer- sity of Copenhagen. A big part of writing a book is also about keeping sane, and for this you need great colleagues that can pull you out of your own circuit and launch you into other realms of inquiry through collaboration, conversa- tion, or just good times. Thank you Mikkel Flyverbom, Rasmus Helles, Stine Lomborg, Helene Ratner, Anders Koed Madsen, Ulrik Ekman, Solveig Gade, Anna Leander, Mareile Kaufmann, Holger Schulze, Jakob Kreutzfeld, Jens Hauser, Nan Gerdes, Kerry Greaves, Mikkel Thelle, Mads Rosendahl Thom- sen, Knut Ove Eliassen, Jens-Erik Mai, Rikke Frank Jørgensen, Klaus Bruhn Jensen, Marisa Cohn, Rachel Douglas-Jones, Taina Bucher, and Baki Cakici. To this end you also need good friends—thank you Thomas Lindquist Winther-Schmidt, Mira Jargil, Christian Sønderby Jepsen, Agnete Sylvest, Louise Michaëlis, Jakob Westh, Gyrith Ravn, Søren Porse, Jesper Værn, Jacob Thorsen, Maia Kahlke, Josephine Michau, Lærke Vindahl, Chris Ped- ersen, Marianne Kiertzner, Rebecca Adler-Nissen, Stig Helveg, Ida Vammen, Alejandro Savio, Lasse Folke Henriksen, Siine Jannsen, Rens van Munster, Stephan Alsman, Sayuri Alsman, Henrik Moltke, Sean Treadway, and many others. I also have to thank Christer and all the people at Alimentari and CUB Coffee who kept my caffeine levels replenished when I tired of the ivory tower. I am furthermore very grateful for the wonderful guidance and sup- port from MIT Press, including Noah Springer, Marcy Ross, and Susan Clark—and of course for the many inspiring conversations with and feed- back from Doug Sery. I also want to thank the anonymous peer reviewers whose insightful and constructive comments helped improve this book immensely. Research for this book was supported by grants from the Dan- ish Research Council and the Velux Foundation.
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