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Big Ten Schools Recommit to Google Books Project
CNN reports that twelve major universities around the country have agreed to have substantial portions of their libraries included in the Google Books project. Around ten million volumes are expected to be included in the project. Participating schools include the University of Chicago and the 11 universities in the Big Ten athletic conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin. "The committee said Google will scan and index materials 'in a manner consistent with copyright law.' Google generally makes available the full text of books in the public domain and limited portions of copyrighted books. Several other universities, including Harvard and California, already have signed up to let Google scan their libraries. "
The books have to purchased first.. then you can read them from that physical location for "free" (for a variable definition of free)
The bloody marvelous venture from Google changes that.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
You might want to ask Google about their policy on how the scanned public domain works can be used. Part of their usual agreement with the libraries is that they will return to the library the digital version of the book -- but the library is not allowed to let anyone have mass or bulk access to the digital versions. Books that are public domain. Which Google has scanned, eg. has not made any transformative change, but wants to control access to. For those who's disbelieve this, go check it out the agreements for public schools (University of California) are available.
All of the libraries which are part of Clevnet, a large network of libraries in Ohio, do this already for books, music, and movies. Have a look here: http://dlc.clevnet.org/E5AA2452-2F88-4EA9-8F8F-F1E B267C0553/10/210/en/Default.htm
Regardless of the maybe-not-so-unimportant details, let me just say that Google Books, with "Full View" turned on, is a treasure. I haven't had so much fun since I graduated and moved and lost access to my university library.
There's just amazing stuff in there. Look at this peek at what Princeton University was like in 1818. Before peeking, guess how many professors you think Princeton had in 1818.
How about Horseless Age, full of spiffy ads on all the hot automotive items of 1903?
How about The Boston Road Book, which lists, describes, and rates all the best roads and routes for cyclists as of 1899?
Yes, I wish Google gave access to the OCR text (they must have OCRed it in order to index it) and I wish they were a little more forthcoming with respect to your rights to use this material (can Google really stop me from reusing material that's in the public domain? Does scanning a book constitute a transformative use or whatever?)
But don't let arguing over it stop you from enjoying this fabulous resource.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!