Recently, Google reached a settlement with the Authors Guild, the Association of American Publishers, and a handful of authors and publishers who filed a class action lawsuit against Google Book Search. As a result, Google plans to continue with Google Book Search, expanding the services they currently offer.
A link to Google's statement concerning the settlement is here: http://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/
The Association of Research Libraries has info on this agreement on their home page, and they also offer a guide outlining what this agreement means for book readers, buyers, publishers, and in my case, libraries and librarians.
Here is the link to the ARL info bit: http://www.arl.org/pp/ppcopyright/google/index.shtml
A direct link to the guide, titled "A Guide for the Perplexed: Libraries and the Google Library Project Settlement." is here: http://www.arl.org/bm~doc/google-settlement-13nov08.pdf
Google plans to expand their Google Book Search services in a couple of very interesting ways. One, they plan to offer many in-print books, as well as out-of-print (but still under copyright) books for purchase through their site. Most articles I've read seem to indicate this price will be typically low--$5.99 or under. Books would be readable through your Google Books library interface, and so would still be copyright protected.
Also, Google plans to put public access terminals in every academic library. (One per library, from what I've read.) If the library subscribes to Google's book database, then those library users who read books through the public access terminal would have full access to ALL of Google's book content. (As opposed to limited previews, as we now find for many books available on Google Books thru the web.) Users would be able to print material from these books, for a fee, though Google may also watermark the printed pages.
I am very excited by these plans for expanding Google Book Search. While Google's online offering of full book content may be detrimental to other book database providers, Google's book reader and user interface is wonderful--heads and shoulder above most other interfaces offered by other book database providers. Google manages to protect content (you cannot print book pages from Google Book Search if the content is copyrighted, at present), and yet allows you to read with ease and speed.
For researchers, keyword searching through millions of sources allows them to undercover facts and information they would never have uncovered by reading the print books on the shelves. For example, I recently put in the names of a couple of my great-grandparents into Google's Book Search, and was astonished to discover that their lives (and the lives of some other relatives) are discussed in some books that cover the early history of the Fort Wayne area. I never would have found this information by looking at print sources.
The New York Times highlights what Google is trying to do with their book search in a recent article They discuss more fully what Google's plans are for allowing users to purchase books, and how this might benefit publishers and authors alike.
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