Google Books engineering director Dan Clancy spelled out the vision at a talk at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View last night. Here goes: Google will partner with all interested retailers, so you'll be able to buy books wherever you like—at an online site or your neighborhood bookstore. [What about libraries?] The books themselves will be stored "in the cloud," meaning out on some Google server, rather than on your computer hard drive or in a device you own. And you'll be able to read them on any device you want—e-reader, phone, computer, or netbook.
This vision is different from the arrangement spelled out in the pending settlement with the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers. That arrangement mostly deals with the out-of-print books Google scanned at university libraries, Clancy said, "so it's more about the past." The new vision concerns the future, in which many books will automatically launch with a digital version (as many do today) and where digital rights and licensing will be baked into publishers' business models.
The FreePint Family is a family of resources to help information workers be more effective, raise the value of information in their organisations and contribute to success.
'FreePint... provides most of my professional development because it won't come through work and [other resources] just don't cut it.'
FUMSI Forum: Do you have a research question? Post it to the FUMSI Forum, where professionals share Q&A and useful tips on how to Find, Use, Manage and Share Information. It's free.
FreePint Shop:
VIP LiveWire:
