[snip]It's also a very short route to the on demand publishing of an out of print and out of copyright book with a company that is set up to do such a deal, and I am aware of at least one that is about to launch that will provide just such a service.[/snip]

You mean, a company besides Lulu.com? I'm curious! Who? Who?

• Posted by: Stephen
• December 14, 2004 1:32 PM

While the short-term focus on what's happening with this Google announcement may be on the "legacy" books sitting in the stacks and basements in the libraries, it's important to consider what the world may look like, going forward. Virtually every book now being written is being written digitally; what will "publishing" look like five years from now? Will one deliver a complete manuscript to the publisher, which will then "MIRV" it into submissions to the printer, to Amazon for "inside the book" search, and to Google? What *more* could be sent to either of the latter, given that they live with fewer format constraints than print?

There was a fascinating development some ten+ years ago now, in the Intelligence Community, when NSA collection analysts started putting their names and phone numbers on intelligence cables, and we analyst/readers got a "direct line" back to the source... classification "sources and methods" constraints might have meant that we couldn't be told any more than was contained in the cable, but we could provide direct feedback and guidance to collectors. I could see either Google or Amazon becoming services to enhance writer/reader communication, on beyond the obvious utility they provide to Search.

• Posted by: Ross Stapleton-Gray
• December 14, 2004 3:37 PM

How long will the book survive? Doesn't searching within the book for precise passages tear apart the structure of the book? Good readers paintstakingly pour over the whole text for that gem. Now they only need to write a few good searches. The book is demystified - wripped apart. Reading will be increasingly selected by the readers' previously conceived questions.

The same forces against the structure of the book (as a whole) oppose the print industry. I don't need a printer to send me the 20 page passage. I can handle that in 30 seconds. Readers will demand this incremental deliver. Publishers will deliver. Writers will groan.

This isn't a religious comment. It's just an observation.

• Posted by: Nathan Slaughter
• December 14, 2004 8:32 PM

I think what Google are undertaking in this program is truly fantastic! To have all that information available through Google will really bring information that would be otherwise unobtainable to the masses.

I have always been frustrated that information held by institutions and certain libraries was only ever available to us by "invitation" or as in some cases where only one copy exists, by traveling halfway around the globe.

I for one hope this sort of venture catches on!

• Posted by: John Beach
• December 20, 2004 7:32 AM

I have read disquieting rumours that the search results when you get them will be text as image and not as plain text - that's the way it is presented in demos apparently. If so it would be terrible. I want to be able to copy and paste the text or download it into my Palm once I find it. It is public domain after all... Like John B I was a little worried Google would ensure you could only access the text via Google but it appears that (in the case of the U of Mich) they are going to make the results of their digitisation available directly to the instutition as well means it should be available via several interfaces and several search engines. Which makes me wonder why they would spend $$$ doing this? It's an awfully expensive bit of good PR... I suppose it may still be *easier* to get at it via Google than an alternative search engine because they integrate things better and include more metadata...

• Posted by: David Brake
• December 29, 2004 2:32 PM

I was thinking on this whole Google/library thing during a long trip back to Michigan, and it occurred to me that having search entities like Google or its competitors arrange for book searching probably stunts the development of open standards and architectures for "blinded" searching (e.g., allowing one to search against a corpus derived from copyrighted works, and receiving pointers/clips sufficient to lead you on to purchase, or otherwise seek information from them). Each of the major search powers will likely create its own proprietary universe of searchability, where what might be better (e.g., more open to allow for other tools, competition, etc.) would be standards for any publisher to build toward.

• Posted by: Ross Stapleton-Gray
• January 1, 2005 1:36 PM

While it may not be legal for people to scan and make available as text, books that are written more recently, it certainly is easy for them to do so. If it becomes routine for people to search books older than a certain date they will probably begin to wonder why they can't search through books written slightly more recently which are not really recent or contemporary at all. Then we will see large numbers of people posting and downloading books with p2p networks as we are seeing now with music and movies.

The 70+ year copyright laws are just going to have to go. They are dinosaurs from the period of the tyranny of geography, the scarcity of shelf space and the creation of the special interests themselves.

I do not argue that there should be no copyrights, only that their duration should be short, as they were originally.

• Posted by: Greg
• January 7, 2005 3:36 PM

I think this is a great idea. As I understand it, on copyrighted materials Google will only retain exerpts. It seems to me that, beyond this, some kind of "pay per view" system could be worked out.
I appreciate the issues of ownership and compensation, and these need to be honored.
For myself, time always being at an essence, in Bloomington IN paying some outrageous parking fee to march 6 blocks in the hail and snow and spend 3 hours to find out that a book I MAY want is at some other library is a "No Way". That stuff is for 100 years ago. Getting a fair chance at seeing that it may be what I want, and paying some nominal fee to see more, would be well worth the price. Would it be worth a couple of bucks? You Betcha!
I think there's an answer in here, somewhere, and I think everyone would benefit. This is a chance for libraries, which are such an incredibly valuable resource, to make the step into the next era.
Jim

• Posted by: Jim
• November 20, 2005 10:56 PM

I've just been hanging out not getting anything done. What can I say? I've basically been doing nothing worth mentioning, but pfft. Not that it matters. Pretty much nothing exciting happening to speak of. I haven't been up to much these days.

• Posted by: TramadoL17638
• August 1, 2006 1:27 PM

I just don't have anything to say. Not that it matters. Eh. I've just been staying at home doing nothing, but I don't care. That's how it is.

• Posted by: TramadoL55565
• August 2, 2006 5:02 PM

I haven't gotten anything done today. I feel like a fog, but what can I say? I've just been letting everything wash over me lately, not that it matters. Shrug.

• Posted by: TramadoL17008
• October 16, 2006 10:36 AM

begin to wonder why they can't search through books written slightly more recently which are not really recent or contemporary at all. Then we will see large numbers of people posting and downloading books with p2p networks as we are seeing now with music and movies.

• Posted by: Polin Armsley
• October 29, 2007 1:02 PM