Who Else Loves Google Books?

[astrum]

Google Books (http://books.google.com/) is a service that allows people to simultaneously search inside millions of books/magazines. Depending on the date of publication and several other factors, users can read a snippet, a limited preview, or the entire book. As of 2013, Google has digitized roughly 25% of the world's 130 million books, and it plans to digitize the rest by the end of this decade.

I think that Google Books is an amazing service. I've been able to find books that I otherwise would never have known about (and purchase or borrow said books thereafter).

I do confess, though, to being a bit of an antiquarian. I love reading vintage books (not just literature)--especially those from the 1800s/early 1900s. Since most of them are out of copyright, I've been able to read a ton on Google Books. One of my cousins is a science whiz, and she uses it to preview scholarly books in chemistry & biology.


What about you? Do you like Google Books?
If so, what sorts of books & magazines do you usually read/preview there?

[JBI]

I hate my kindle. It's a pain to read anything with footnotes on it, and it does not let me read vertical texts.

[astrum]

I'm sorry to hear that.

Perhaps you could try Google Books, then. And thereafter let us know what you think.

[archibaldtuttle]

don't know if this thread can go any further. i could love google books, but the whole meme seems to have stalled. their help forum is AWOL. there is no obvious central repository for sharing praise and criticism of the program, questions on how to use it, and to hash out the values explicit and implicit in copyright settlements that are quietly defining the bounds of human inquiry in this arena.

Partly, i understand that Google appears to have moved from the standalone books motif to a google play app kind of setting with an eye towards selling books that are under copyright. i don't like the app format much, i hate tablets and touch screen phones so this puts me off personally, but even if I want to plug in with my antique Mac Air it isn't obvious where the discussions, the energy the crowdsourcing that gives context to this effort is going on. i'm not taking issue with ecommerce which is a natural outgrowth and I don't even mind modest compensation model for making a searchable database of works available. that isn't charging for the works, it is charging for the work of creating a searchable database. I see this a potential treasure trove but it keeps retreating over the next hill. i've been thinking the literary pot of gold is just around the corner for a decade now and it seems no closer.

The issues I have is that there seems to no rhyme nor reason about what they have. Maybe it is just luck of the draw. I look for de Thoyras's Dissertation on Tories and Whigs published circa 1736 and they show the covers of several editions but don't have any content. And there is no explanation. Why would they have scans of the covers and not of the books. Since these books aren't in their library, if you have a copy of the book and you scan the cover you don't scan the book at the same time? maybe the covers are fakes or placeholders and this book is amongst the 100 million they haven't gotten around to scanning yet. I just think it is bizarre that they don't explain. Or if they can't take the resources to explain for each book -- which I don't think would be that difficult or require that many resources when they are putting the cover into the system anyway, at least they could have some kind of link where it says "no preview" to explain the variety of reasons for which there might be no preview.

And i'm equally perplexed by a more compicated problem of orphan works where copyright may be extant but no owner or agent of the copyright can readily be found. I've been seeking several works by the ambiguous new deal figure James Warburg that were written in the early 1930's. Again i get covers, not even a preview and no indication of whether they just havent' gotten to it or would publish it without rights until complaint from someone who establishes a chain of title.

and there isn't anywhere obvious for folks to discuss what they have made regarding a copyright settlement. I'm sure i could go to an intellectual property lawyers site or some such, but in the realm of literature writers and appreciaters I think a robust discourse on what they are doing is important. I certainly agree that they deserve some latitude and prerogative given their investment in publishing the library of human civilization. But that doesn't mean i am convinced that i want google deciding the boundaries of copyright law.

That is my 2 cents, well looking back, it looks more like a quarter. If i'm missing some vibrant place where all this is being discussed, by all means, don't be hesitant to tell me i'm the worst searcher on the planet and point me to it. or lets start it here. or . . . your ideas?

thanks

brian

[archibaldtuttle]

Too Prosaic? Story of my life.

Title of the thread I joined unappealing -- or out of date?

I'd have thought there was something of interest in google books for this demographic.

brian