Google Makes Its First Public Domain Books Available Online.

Navigation: Main page

Author: Flagg, Gordon

Google put the full text of over 10,000 public domain books online in early November--the first large collection offered in its effort to digitize books from libraries and provide access to their contents through its search engine. The works, available though the Google Print website, are fully searchable and users can save individual page images. The titles include U.S. Civil War history books, government documents, and the writings of Henry James.

"Today, we welcome the world to our library," said University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman in a November 3 statement; the U of M library is among those contributing to the project. "As educators we are inspired by the possibility of sharing these important works with people around the globe."

Any researcher or student, whether they're in New York or New Delhi, can now research and learn from these books that previously were only available in a library," said Google Vice President of Product Management Susan Wojcicki.

Google also announced that it would soon end its three-month moratorium on scanning copyrighted materials (AL, Sept., p. 17-18). Although the company had previously said it would resume scanning November 1, three days into the month it had not yet restarted. Google spokesman Nate Tyler said the scanning would resume "soon," the online CNet news service reported November 4. "We're getting to it. Its an operational thing," said Tyler.

Meanwhile, Google said October 17 that it had launched local-language search engines in eight European countries for its Google Prim program, allowing users to search books from publishers in each country as well as selected English-language books.

Wojcicki said in the October 18 New York Times that the new sites currently search only a relatively small number of titles, but that eventually they would provide access to data about foreign-language books held by the libraries involved in the project: Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford Universities; the University of Michigan; and New York Public Library.

If some librarians fretted that the Google Print Library project posed a threat to their profession, it appears the firm may be poised to encroach even further on libraries' turf: The November 14 Wall Street Journal reported that Google has approached at least one book publisher to gauge interest in a plan to let users "rent" online copies of new books for a week.

The unnamed publisher, who told the journal that the books would not be downloadable or printable, felt that while Google's proposed fee of 10% of the book's list price was too low, the proposal indicated a way that publishers might capitalize on the growing online-book market. Google's Tyler declined to comment on the report, telling American Libraries that "Google Print is exploring new access models to help authors and publishers sell more books online, but we don't have anything to announce today."

PHOTO (COLOR)

~~~~~~~~

By Gordon Flagg