Re: Google Partners with Oxford, Harvard & Others to Digitize Libraries
There's actually quite a lot about this project -- "Google Print" -- to be learned from their own web site: http://print.google.com/ which may dispel some of the misconceptions I see being bandied about. It also raises some more questions. (E.g. it is not at all clear whether their "print only" policy will apply to everything, or only the copyright books.) But also, to keep this in perspective, it may be worth remembering the recent Google stock float, which may have some influence on the timing of this press release and the previous (last week's) release about Google Scholar. Clearly, these things are going to do no harm to their stock price. Google Print has a long way to go, and I wish them well. Steve -- Stephen Thomas, Senior Systems Analyst, University of Adelaide Library UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE SA 5005 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 8 830 35190 Fax: +61 8 830 34369 Email: stephen.thomas@adelaide.edu.au URL: http://staff.library.adelaide.edu.au/~sthomas/ CRICOS Provider Number 00123M ----------------------------------------------------------- This email message is intended only for the addressee(s) and contains information that may be confidential and/or copyright. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender by reply email and immediately delete this email. Use, disclosure or reproduction of this email by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly prohibited. No representation is made that this email or any attachments are free of viruses. Virus scanning is recommended and is the responsibility of the recipient.
On Thu, 16 Dec 2004, Steve Thomas wrote:
There's actually quite a lot about this project -- "Google Print" -- to be learned from their own web site:
which may dispel some of the misconceptions I see being bandied about. It also raises some more questions. (E.g. it is not at all clear whether their "print only" policy will apply to everything, or only the copyright books.)
You can only SEE a few pages from the copyrighted books, but can NEVER print ANY pages from ANY books, as far as I can tell.
But also, to keep this in perspective, it may be worth remembering the recent Google stock float, which may have some influence on the timing of this press release and the previous (last week's) release about Google Scholar. Clearly, these things are going to do no harm to their stock price.
As far as I can tell, the timing was based on being exacly one year from our meeting with them when we pitched the eLibrary idea at their headquarters, after which the silence was deafening. . .no replies to emails. . . .
mh
Playing around with this a little more, I found something interesting: First I did a standard Google for "William Morris". The results page lists one book result at the top, which takes you to a page for the Cambridge Uni. press edition of "News from nowhere". (Surely they have other editions/titles too?) This only provides a few pages, but if you use "Search within this book" you can get other pages. Specifically, I typed in the keyword "the" and seem to have made it list ALL the pages (assuming the word "the" would appear on every page). They have used some Javascript magic to prevent you from saving the page images. I dare say someone will figure out a way round that. Also they seem to have some kind of counter that stops you viewing too many pages at once. All of this is aimed at their publisher market of course -- they want publishers to let them scan their books ard make them searchable, and this is the trade-off. Still not clear whether they'll treat the PD stuff from librarys the same way. Steve -- Stephen Thomas, Senior Systems Analyst, University of Adelaide Library UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE SA 5005 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 8 830 35190 Fax: +61 8 830 34369 Email: stephen.thomas@adelaide.edu.au URL: http://staff.library.adelaide.edu.au/~sthomas/ CRICOS Provider Number 00123M ----------------------------------------------------------- This email message is intended only for the addressee(s) and contains information that may be confidential and/or copyright. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender by reply email and immediately delete this email. Use, disclosure or reproduction of this email by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly prohibited. No representation is made that this email or any attachments are free of viruses. Virus scanning is recommended and is the responsibility of the recipient.
Strangely, searching for "William Morris News from Nowhere" does NOT bring up the book link! So I guess Google still have a few wrinkles to iron out. Steve Steve Thomas wrote:
Playing around with this a little more, I found something interesting:
First I did a standard Google for "William Morris".
The results page lists one book result at the top, which takes you to a page for the Cambridge Uni. press edition of "News from nowhere". (Surely they have other editions/titles too?)
This only provides a few pages, but if you use "Search within this book" you can get other pages. Specifically, I typed in the keyword "the" and seem to have made it list ALL the pages (assuming the word "the" would appear on every page).
They have used some Javascript magic to prevent you from saving the page images. I dare say someone will figure out a way round that. Also they seem to have some kind of counter that stops you viewing too many pages at once.
All of this is aimed at their publisher market of course -- they want publishers to let them scan their books ard make them searchable, and this is the trade-off.
Still not clear whether they'll treat the PD stuff from librarys the same way.
Steve
-- Stephen Thomas, Senior Systems Analyst, University of Adelaide Library UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE SA 5005 AUSTRALIA Phone: +61 8 830 35190 Fax: +61 8 830 34369 Email: stephen.thomas@adelaide.edu.au URL: http://staff.library.adelaide.edu.au/~sthomas/ CRICOS Provider Number 00123M ----------------------------------------------------------- This email message is intended only for the addressee(s) and contains information that may be confidential and/or copyright. If you are not the intended recipient please notify the sender by reply email and immediately delete this email. Use, disclosure or reproduction of this email by anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is strictly prohibited. No representation is made that this email or any attachments are free of viruses. Virus scanning is recommended and is the responsibility of the recipient.
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