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Google Book Search
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Google Book Search | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Google Book Search screenshot |
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| Developer | |
| OS | Any (web based application) |
| Genre | Online Library Book Search |
| Website | http://books.google.com/ |
Google Book Search is a tool from Google that searches the full text of books that Google scans and stores in its digital database. The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004. When relevant to a user's keyword search, up to three results from the Google Book Search index are displayed above search results in the Google Web Search service (google.com). A user may also search just for books at the dedicated Google Book Search service. Clicking a result from Google Book Search opens an interface in which the user may view pages from the book as well as content-related advertisements and links to the publisher's website and booksellers. Through a variety of access limitations and security measures, some based on user-tracking, Google limits the number of viewable pages and attempts to prevent page printing and text copying of material under copyright.[1]
The Google Book Search service remains in a beta stage but the underlying database continues to grow, with more than a hundred thousand titles added by publishers and authors and some 10,000 works in the public domain now indexed and included in search results. Google Book Search allows public-domain works and other out-of-copyright material to be downloaded in PDF format. For users outside the United States, though, Google must be sure that the work in question is indeed out of copyright under local laws. Says a member of the Google Book Search Support Team, "Since whether a book is in the public domain can often be a tricky legal question, we err on the side of caution and display at most a few snippets until we have determined that the book has entered the public domain."[2]
Many of the books are scanned using Google's undisclosed proprietary method, most likely through the use of a robotic book scanner, where books are placed into the machine by a human operator and "scanned" (in practice, a digital camera is used at a distance) at a rate of 1,000 pages per hour.[3] The rapidity of the scanning precludes checking the pages. Hence, some pages are not scanned or are scanned in such a fashion as to make them unreadable.[4][5][6][7]
As of 2006, neither Google, nor rival Microsoft, would reveal how many books they have already scanned.[8] Google did say that it is scanning more than 3,000 books per day, a rate that translates into more than 1 million annually.[9] The entire project may exceed $US 100 million dollars.[10]. As of March 2007, the New York Times reported that Google has already digitized one million volumes at an estimated cost of US$5 million[9].
Contents |
- In December 2004, Google signaled an extension to its Google Print initiative known as the Google Print Library Project.[11] Google announced partnerships with several high-profile university and public libraries, including the University of Michigan, Harvard (Harvard University Library), Stanford (Green Library), Oxford (Bodleian Library), and the New York Public Library. According to press releases and university librarians, Google plans to digitize and make available through its Google Book Search service approximately 15 million volumes within a decade. The announcement soon triggered controversy, as publisher and author associations challenged Google's plans to digitize, not just books in the public domain, but also titles still under copyright.
- On November 17, 2005, Google changed the name of this service from Google Print to Google Book Search.[12] Its program enabling publishers and authors to include their books in the service was renamed "Google Books Partner Program" (see Google Library Partners) and the partnership with libraries became Google Books Library Project.
- On August 10, 2006 the University of California System announced that it would join the Book Search digitization project. This includes a portion of the 34 million volumes within the approximately 100 libraries managed by the System.
- On October 12, 2006 the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced that it would join the Book Search digitization project along with the Wisconsin Historical Society Library. Combined, the libraries have 7.2 million holdings.[13]
- On January 19, 2007 the University of Texas at Austin announced that it would join the Book Search digitization project. At least one million volumes will be digitized from the University's 13 library locations.
- On March 6, 2007 the Bavarian State Library announced a partnership with Google to scan more than a million public domain and out-of-print works in German as well as English, French, Italian, Latin, and Spanish.[14]
- On May 17, 2007, a partnership was announced with the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne.[15]
- May 2007: The Boekentoren Library of Ghent University will participate with 19th century books in the French and Dutch languages.[16]
- June 2007: The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) announced that its twelve member libraries would participate in scanning 10 million books over the course of the next six years.[17]
- On July 10, 2007 Keio University became Google's first library partner in Japan with the announcement that they would digitize at least 120,000 public domain books.[18]
- On August 8, 2007 Google announced that it would digitize up to 500,000 both copyrighted and public domain items from Cornell University Library. Google will also provide a digital copy of all works scanned to be incorporated into the university’s own library system.[19]
- On September 6, 2007 Google added a feature that allows users to share snippets of books that are in the public domain. The snippets may appear exactly as they do in the scan of the book or as plain text.[20]
- On September 6, 2007 A feature called My Library was added that allows users to create personal customized libraries, selections of books that they can label, review, rate, or full-text search.[21]
- On December 13, 2007 Columbia University was added as a partner in digitizing public domain works.[22]
The number of partricipating institutions has grown since the inception of the Google Books Library Project:
- University of Lausanne, Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne, Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire/BCU + Google (in French)
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It has been suggested that some of the information in this article's "Criticism" or "Controversy" section(s) be merged into other sections to achieve a more neutral presentation. (Discuss) |
Google Book Search remains controversial.
While librarians hail the initiative for its potential to offer unprecedented access to what may become the largest online corpus of human knowledge,[23][24] the publishing industry and writers' groups have criticized the project's inclusion of snippets of copyrighted works as infringement. The Authors Guild of America[25] and Association of American Publishers[26][27] have separately sued Google, citing "massive copyright infringement." Google claims its project represents a fair use, and is the digital age equivalent of a card catalog with every word in the publication indexed.
Some European politicians and intellectuals have criticized Google's effort on "language-imperialism" grounds, arguing that because the vast majority of books proposed to be scanned are in English, it will result in disproportionate representation of natural languages in the digital world. German, Russian, and French, for instance, are popular languages in scholarship; the disproportionate online emphasis on English could shape access to historical scholarship, and, ultimately, the growth and direction of future scholarship. Among these critics is Jean-Noël Jeanneney, the president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France[28]
In June 2006, a French publisher announced its intention to sue Google France.[29] In 2006 a previously-filed German lawsuit was withdrawn.[30]
In March 2007, Thomas Rubin, associate general counsel for copyright, trademark, and trade secrets at Microsoft, accused Google of violating copyright law with their book search service. Rubin specifically criticized Google's policy of freely copying any work until notified by the copyright holder to stop.[31]
Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia has published the opinion [32], that the project poses a danger for the doctrine of fair use, because the fair use claims are arguably so excessive that it may cause judicial limitation of that right. [33]
Google licensing of public domain works is also an area of concern[citation needed], Google apparently is claiming a restrictive 'No-Commercial use' term in respect of the PDF electronic versions it provides, as well as using digital watermarking techniques with them. Some articles that are in the public domain, such as all works created by the U.S. Federal government, are still treated like other works under copyright, and therefore locked after 1922.[34]
In addition, there is the matter of quality. Portions of text are sometimes cut off by poor placement on the surface of the scanner, and the hands and fingers of the scanning personnel are sometimes visible on the scanned page, usually covering text. Google does provide a feedback mechanism for reporting illegible or missing pages.[35]
- ^ Greg Duffy (March 2005). Google's Cookie and Hacking Google Print. Kuro5hin.
- ^ Ryan Sands (November 9, 2006). From the mail bag: Public domain books and downloads (blog). Inside Google Book Search.
- ^ Kevin Kelly. "Scan This Book!", New York Times Magazine, May 14, 2006.
- ^ In Species Plantarum, it is difficult to find early pages (no pagination) and an image of the robotic page turner is seen.
- ^ In The Merry-Go-Round, there are pages (e.g. 326) blocked by debris on the scanner.
- ^ In The Making of a Saint , pages (i.e. page 4) are cut in two and unreadable.
- ^ In Italian Villas by Edith Wharton, some pages cut off, missing, or un-readable.
- ^ "Microsoft starts online library in challenge to Google Books." AFP Worldwide.
- ^ a b New York Times; March 11, 2007; History, Digitized (and Abridged)[1]
- ^ CIO Today; December 20, 2006
- ^ Joseph O'Sullivan, Adam Smith (December 14, 2004). All booked up (blog). Googleblog.
- ^ Jen Grant (November 17, 2005). Judging Book Search by its cover (blog). Googleblog.
- ^ UW-Madison joins Google's worldwide book digitization project (press release) (2006-10-12). Retrieved on 2007-04-10.
- ^ Bavarian library joins Google book search project CNET News.com March 6, 2007
- ^ "La Bibliothèque, C'est Google" by Brock Read. Wired Campus Newsletter, Chronicle of Higher Education, [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ [4]
- ^ http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2007/07/keio-university-joins-googles-library.html
- ^ http://library.cornell.edu/communications/Google/
- ^ http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2007/08/share-and-enjoy.html
- ^ http://books.google.com/googlebooks/mylibrary/
- ^ http://booksearch.blogspot.com/2007/12/columbia-university-joins-google-book.html
- ^ Bergquist, Kevin. "Google project promotes public good", The University Record, University of Michigan, 2006-02-13. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
- ^ Pace, Andrew K. (January 2006). Is This the Renaissance or the Dark Ages?. American Libraries. American Library Association. Retrieved on 2007-04-11. “Google made instant e-book believers out of skeptics even though 10 years of e-book evangelism among librarians had barely made progress.”
- ^ Aiken, Paul (2005-09-20). Authors Guild Sues Google, Citing "Massive Copyright Infringement" (press release). The Authors Guild. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
- ^ Gilbert, Alorie. "Publishers sue Google over book search project", CNET News, 2005-10-19. Retrieved on 2007-04-11.
- ^ The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.; Pearson Education, Inc.; Penguin Group (USA) Inc.; Simon and Schuster, Inc.; John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Plaintiffs, v. Google Inc., Defendant. Retrieved on 2007-10-05. PDF file of the complaint. SD. N.Y. Case No. 05-CV-8881-JES.
- ^ Jean-Noël Jeanneney (2006-10-23). Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge: A View from Europe (book abstract; Foreword by Ian Wilson). ISBN 0-226-39577-4. Retrieved on 2007-02-21.
- ^ John Oates. "French publisher sues Google", The Register, June 7, 2006.
- ^ Danny Sullivan (2006-06-28). Google Book Search Wins Victory In German Challenge (blog). Search Engine Watch. Retrieved on 2006-11-11.
- ^ Thomas Claburn. "Microsoft Attorney Accuses Google Of Copyright Violations", InformationWeek, March 6, 2007.
- ^ Siva Vaidhyanathan,. “The Googlization of Everything and the Future of Copyright,” University of California Davis Law Review volume 40 (March 2007), pp. 1207–1231, pdf
- ^ First Monday Transcript September 2007
- ^ Google Books: Is It Good for History?
- ^ I spotted a problem with one of your pages. Whom do I tell?
- Questia Online Library
- Michigan digitization project -University of Michigan's implementation of items scanned by Google
- Digital library
- Universal library (Carnegie Mellon University) a parallel effort conducted by the Carnegie Mellon University which has already scanned 1,5 Million books.
- List of digital library projects
- Open Content Alliance
- Project Gutenberg
- Universal library
- Book scanning
- A9.com is Amazon.com's book search
- Live Search Books
- Domínio Público
- Google Book Search homepage
- Google Book Search Information Page
- The Author's Guild et al v. Google Inc. Timeline and progression of case
- Jeffrey Toobin; Google's Moon Shot
- Malte Herwig; "Putting The World's Books On The Web" (SPIEGEL International Edition)
- archive.org text search
