Book Scanning Accidents

December 7, 2013 timothywstanley@me.com

A small but thriving subculture is documenting Google Books’ scanning process, in the form of Tumblrs, printed books, photographs, online videos, and gallery-based installations. Something new is happening here that brings together widespread nostalgia for paperbound books with our concerns about mass digitization. Scavengers obsessively comb through page after page of Google Books, hoping to stumble upon some glitch that hasn’t yet been unearthed... Soulellis calls the Library of the Printed Web 'an accumulation of accumulations,' much of it printed on demand. In fact, he says that 'I could sell the Library of the Printed Web and then order it again and have it delivered to me in a matter of days.' A few years ago, such books would never have been possible. The book is far from dead: it’s returning in forms that few could ever have imagined.

"The Artful Accidents of Google Books," The New Yorker - http://nyr.kr/1csSx32