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

[Karen Coyle]

Richard Wiggins wrote:
>
> -- The downloadable PDF appears to be images wrapped in PDF, not OCRed
> text.  That means I can't search it locally, and I can't copy text 
> from it
> to use in a research paper.  Is this correct?
Yep. So essentially what you have is an electronic book with none of the 
features of an electronic book except that it is stored as ones and 
zeroes. We know what people want in ebooks (see "E-Book Functionalities: 
What Libraries and Their Patrons Want and Expect from Electronic Book 
Technologies" Lita Guide 10, Susan Gibbons, et al.) At a minimum they 
need to be able to bookmark their place in the book, and navigate to 
chapters and pages. In addition people want to be able to make notes in 
the margins, "dog-ear" pages to return to, copy passages to the 
clipboard, search within the text, and see visually how far into the 
book they are (scroll bar or whatever). These books have none of that.

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

-- 
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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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