Google's Library Project Turns Two Years Old on December 14th
Wow, time sure flies. 2 years already. We know many facts about Google Book Search and the Google Library Project but there is still many issues we know little about. Examples: Output (how many books have been digitized) from the various program members so far? How many are being digitized and released on a monthly basis? Yearly? Is subject searching (using a controlled vocabulary) on the way? Collection development goals? Is there an order items are selected for digitization? Are the same titles being digitized at various member libraries? Are non-public domain titles being scanned? Perhaps these and many other facts will be revealed in the future.
As we regularly point out on ResourceShelf, book digitization in its many forms is not new. Examples? 2006 brought us the 35th Anniversary of Project Gutenberg. Here are two interviews with the founder of Project Gutenberg, Michael Hart. 1 ||| 2.
Mr. Hart has also sent some thoughts about Project Gutenberg, Google Books Search and related matters in an e-mail. He has given ResourceShelf permission to print the message. You'll find his comments here.
Also this year we were treated to two free months of access to The World E-Book Library. This collections contains over 400,000 titles in PDF. When the WEL is not having an e-book fair, access to this collection is $8.95/U.S. per year.
In this post (at the bottom) we list a few (of many) digitized book resources, both free (like The Online Books Page) and fee-based (free via many libraries like NetLibrary, Safari, and ebrary). Of course, Amazon's Search Inside the Book program which is similar to the publisher program from Google Book search has added some new features in the Spring. The reviews we link to below also offer up some comparisons.
In a post last week about the launch of Microsoft Live Book Search, we mentioned it would be very useful if ALL of the large digitization programs would, at the least, let us know when new materials enter their databases. An RSS feed would be ideal. Sort of a "virtual new bookshelf." The Online Books page does offer a feed of new entries as it enters this "must have" directory.
Remember, Google Book Search (both the library program and publisher program) offers different "views" of material depending on various factors. Google offers of this page that does a good job of explaining and illustrating.
Important! What follows are only a few highlights from the first two years. By NO means is this a complete list of every news item that has come along in the first 730 days. For every item we listed, we could have listed 20 more. Not even close. From more items, Charles W. Bailey's "The Google Print Controversy: A Bibliography". Links to many more articles, primary docs, etc. Kudos to Mr. Bailey for compiling this resource.
Finally, two highly respected librarians and reference reviewers, Dr. Peter Jacso and Mick O'Leary have both published thorough reviews of Google Book Search in recent weeks.
Now, on to our brief but hopefully useful hyperlinked chronology.
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