British Library books go digital

[Studio717]

Google books has given us complete access to a great number of books that would otherwise be completely out of reach. Being able to download PDFs of books that reside in the Bodlian, for instance, is an amazing resource. I've located (and downloaded) some spectacular books (in the sense that I could not have located them anywhere else) from the 18th and early 19th centuries. And, frankly, I've thanked Google more often than I've cursed them (in regards to being able to download previously unobtainable books).

That gratitude, in a sense, is what feeds the frustration I do have when trying to locate other books, equally in the public domain. It's an interesting conundrum - on my part, at least - because the very reprint publishers that are now keeping copies of public domain works out of my hands (due to Google books' decision) are the very reprint publishers that put those previously inaccessible public domain works into readers' hands, even if they were at a sometimes exorbitant price. (Unfortunately, andym's $130 book is not uncommon in this area.)

So, I'm enormously grateful to Google (and the others) for doing this at all. And I am fine with the decision to keep IN PRINT and IN COPYRIGHT works relegated to snippet (or less) views if that is the wish of the author(s). It's the gray areas for me - both OOP and, especially, the public domain works - where my frustration builds, especially when said reprint is OOP and inaccessible through either the publisher or used book stores.

[nekokami]

Originally Posted by andym

Nekokami. I know that Google is a commercial enterprise - thanks for the reminder.

... I know Google is a commercial enterprise, but you'd think that if they were going to go to the trouble of scanning these books that they would find a more imaginitive way of using (and making money out of) that resource - for example, I came across one text via a Google search which I would like to read but it costs about $130. I'd happily pay something to be able to read it online (or put up with advertising or whatever).

Sorry, I really wasn't trying to be snide. I wholeheartedly agree with you on the fact that Google could be a good deal more creative in how they offer these texts. I think they may have originally intended to be, and got slapped down in the kerfluffle over the start of the project. I'm still hoping that things will settle down and more content will become available, whether for fee, supported by ads, or whatever. Meanwhile, at least the texts are scanned. If one of these libraries burns down, the content will still be preserved.