Here's what you will --and won't-- be able to see when searching for library books on Google, Detroit Free Press, December 15, 2004. An unsigned news story. Excerpt: 'A link to the book [matching your searchstring] will, for instance, likely turn up somewhere among the many items your search will generate. But it may not be listed among the top choices you're given, especially if your search terms are found in other Web material. As it stands right now, the links at the top of any Google search are those that are most popular with Google users. And even if a link to [a copyrighted book] did turn up in your search, you still wouldn't be able to read the whole thing in this case. That's because, under copyright laws, Google will only be able to provide snippets from many of the libraries' books -- sometimes only two or three sentences that contain the Web surfer's search terms....Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association, thinks the value of helping people from anywhere in the world view a library's special collections is "almost priceless." Still, he is "underwhelmed" with the idea of short excerpts of copyrighted books, which he says provide information that -- unless read as part of the whole book -- is limited and often useless....Other librarians agree that there are kinks that Google will need to work out. For instance, to make sure the library content isn't buried beneath traditional Web content, many think Google will need to create a separate area for searching books only.' (Thanks to LIS News.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/17/2004 09:21:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
