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Google's Library Up and Running

Posted by Hemos on from the good-news-for-the-information dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It seems that Google Print results are beginning to appear on searches. For those who don't know, Google has been scanning from libraries from some of the world's greatest universities in order to compile a freely accessible online library. An easy way to turn up these results is to simply type "book", and then whatever you want to search for. For instance, book origin of species will turn up the full text of Charles Darwin's controversial treatise. 20,000 leagues, Oliver Twist and Pride and Prejudice and m o r e are all there in full. It'll be interestin to see how publishers deal with this if demand for these books declines. In the meantime, would anyone like to point out any good books?" Hopefully, Google can also start to index some books that are being released in the Creative Commons/alternative open licenses.

10 of 420 comments (clear)

  1. popular public domain classics are already online by tverbeek · · Score: 4, Informative

    A lot of these books have been available online (and easily findable via search engines) for years, courtesy of Project Gutenberg and others. Granted, Google gives them a little higher profile, and maybe they'll be more accessible, but it's not like the publishers of Shakespeare and Stevenson are facing something really new here.

    --
    http://alternatives.rzero.com/
  2. not Full-Text! by LMCBoy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not one of the linked titles contains the full text of the book! Each shows only a few pages.
    From the "About Google Print" page:

    (you can view the entirety of public domain books or, for books under copyright, just a few pages or in some cases, only the titles bibliographic data and brief snippets)

    However, it seems to consider every title to be "under copyright". I mean, Romeo and Juliet is centuries old, and surely in the public domain. If it's considered copyrighted, then just about everything will be.

    Anyway, if you want free e-texts, Project Gutenberg is a great resource.

    --
    Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.
  3. Re:Highlighting is annoyuing- google the ISBN # by Morph233 · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://print.google.com/print?id=LDrPI52uFQsC&prev =http://print.google.com/print%3Fq%3D019283438X&pg =3&sig=stLCn4Uuh5uCKQVXgVetpjRD5T8 google the ISBM number of the book

  4. No copyright infringement... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    If you go to Google and read about this project, you'll quickly notice that unless the books are in the public domain, you won't be able to read the entire book online. This purpose of the project is the enable people to quickly _find_ books, not read them entirely online. Once you've found a desired book by using Google, you'll most likely have to go to a library and check the book out or buy it...

  5. Re:Holy Bible? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Probably because it isn't just called the Holy Bible in the collection.

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=book+King +James&btnG=Search

    However, I'm pretty sure you were just trolling.... Otherwise you would look for a specific VERSION of the bible!

  6. Re:Holy Bible? by Total_Wimp · · Score: 4, Informative

    Thanks for the info, but he wan't trolling. It was one of the first books I checked for and amazingly "bible" and "the bible" do not yeild the desired results either. It's a little surprising to have to be so specific for this particular book.

    TW

  7. Re:Out of print by Total_Wimp · · Score: 5, Informative
    Out of print, copyrighted, whatever. This is how google has chosen to deal with the subject:

    Thank you for using Google Print.

    You have either reached a page that is unavailable for viewing or reached your viewing limit for this book.

    Google protects works that are under copyright by restricting access to certain pages and restricting the number of pages you can view. You may continue to take advantage of Google Print by clicking on About this Book. Thank you for using Google Print.


    I had thought that they were putting "books" online. Turns out they're just putting the ability to search through books online.

    BTW, this came up when I hit next page too many times on "Origin of Species" who's original text, I presume, is not copyrighted.

    TW
  8. Re:As is not being able to access a specific page by angst7 · · Score: 4, Informative

    To read through an entire book, all you need to is start from the beginning. When you get to the last page it will display, search for a result found on that page, then continue the process. I just read the first 15 or so pages of Finnegans Wake this way. I'd continue further, but I value my sanity.

    --
    StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
  9. Defeating the pseudo-DRM by Andrew+Cady · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hacking Google Print article on kuro5hin.org, explains how Google Print uses cookies to track your access and ensure you don't look at too many pages. Solution: acquire lots of cookies.
    Firefox GreaseMonkey scripts -- scroll to "Google Butler"; it will make saving Google Print pages work without extra effort in Firefox.

  10. Re:Out of print by ComputerSlicer23 · · Score: 4, Informative
    Project Gutenburg is a pretty good source for copyright info. Here's what he has to say:

    FAQ entry on books with updated copyright dates

    So there you go.

    It's my understanding that they can't re-copyright the actual text. However, they can copyright the presentation, line editting, page breaks and whatnot. So you could take the actual text from them, you couldn't take the text in that presentation from them.

    Fun huh?.

    Kirby