GBS: Two More Letters in Support


The United States Distance Learning Association and United States Student Association have joined the chorus of pro-accessibility organizations favoring the settlement. In addition to the usual boilerplate about their organizations, the letters primarily reiterate familiar claims about the settlement.

The students get right to the point:

The settlement will dramatically expand access to millions of books through Google Book Search and other services that are enabled by the settlement. These services will have a transformative impact on research and scholarship, and will help level the educational playing field.

The distance educators are a little more dependent on jargon:

Approval will have a powerful impact on the critical issues of quality standards, research, teacher preparedness, and new technologies as well as the sharing and dissemination of the professional efforts and successes of professionals in all fields. Additionally, approval of the final settlement will increase and improve the educational resources of schools and universities that exemplify the dynamic nature of distance learning by expanding access to millions of books through Google Book Search and other services. These services will have a forceful impact on research and scholarship through distance learning. Moreover, approval of the settlement will support teacher preparedness and increase use of new technologies from kindergarten to the university.

If I’ve got this right, the impact will be “transformational,” “powerful,” and “forceful.”