[Web4lib] Google Allows Downloads of out-of-copyright Books

[Grace J. Agnew]

Can you have your computer read it aloud, if these are essentially 
images, such as JPEGs, wrapped in PDF.  When I read Richard's statement, 
I wondered how the images wrapped in PDF would affect disability 
access.  Can/should libraries recommend this Google service, if it 
doesn't support minimal functionality for the disabled.

--Or does it?  Intuitively, I would say it doesn't, but I don't have 
handy access to a screen reader.  Has anybody tested it?

Grace Agnew

Karen Coyle wrote:

>
>
> On the plus side, you can have your computer read it aloud, which is 
> not possible with most commercial e-books since this is considered to 
> be covered under a separate "performance" contract with the author.
>
>>
>> -- What's the error rate?  Google lists the particular document I 
>> found as
>> being published in 1850.  The document is from 1856.
>
> High. Very high. As a quick and dirty keyword index to books, which is 
> what Google originally announced as their goal, the quality is 
> probably sufficient. As a book to be read, it's definitely inadequate. 
> Not this particular book perhaps, but the Google corpus generally.
>
> kc
>

-- 

____________________________________________________________

Grace Agnew
Associate University Librarian for Digital Library Systems
Rutgers University Libraries
47 Davidson Road Piscataway, NJ 08854
732/445-5908
gagnew at rci.rutgers.edu

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