From the Detroit Free Press:
Here’s what you will _ and won’t _ be able to see when searching for library books on Google
From the Detroit Free Press:
Here’s what you will _ and won’t _ be able to see when searching for library books on GoogleA few months from now, perhaps by mid-2005, Google will be adding thousands of library books from university collections to its searchable database. But what will the new feature, announced this week by the world’s leading search engine, mean for the average Web surfer?
It depends on what you’re looking for.
Too pessimistic
This article is a bit too pessimistic. Google plans on making full text available on millions of books in the public domain and that is very valuable.
For the books that are still under copyright, it’s true that only snippets will be available. But doesn’t making people aware of these books actually increase the chance that people will go to their library to find them? Google is already making use of the OCLC World Cat records. Someone finding a book can then search and find a library close to them that has it.
I think this may promote the value and use of libraries, as it allows people to search from a preferred and trusted source for references that will lead them to the library.
Re:Too pessimistic
I think one of the problems is that we as LIS staff etc know what this actually means as we know all about copyright for example. But if you sayto the man/student on the street that Google are digitising books, they will be thinking of the books they use normally (fiction and non fiction) not 100+ year old ones that are in the public domain. They are going to be thinking more of the style of e-books which are most certainly not going to be free anywhere anytime soon (again beyond those free in the public domain through Guttenberg)
It’s going to be a distinction problem. Don’t get me wrong it’s a wonderful idea and certainly needs doing. But this is another step towards more people expecting everything online to be freely available,and also freely available free!
Yes it will certainly help widen the range of people who can find things (ie those who never use the library only Google) but after that point if they only get a taster then they are back to paying for an inter-library loan in most cases, I doubt the books that are being scanned are going to necesarily be available in every main library.
Printing on demand is going to be where it works well in these cases.
I hope there is a lot more of this sort of thing.
Start with Project Gutenberg (Project Googtenburg?
Google would do good to start with the books already available online, such as on Project Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/) which already has thousands of public domain books scanned, and, even more importanly, proof read. I have used this site often to put books on my PDA to read while commuting. They are in ASCII code, and can be used with almost all word processing programs.
I am always annoyed that these materials are not placed on more High School and public library catalogs. They open the door to so many books not normally available in smaller facilities, and they are instantly available.
Lee