Google Print Now Publishing Out-Of-Copyright Works Gained Through Library Scanning Program

Google Print is now publishing the
full-text of public domain/out-of-copyright print works it has acquired through
the Google Print library scanning project. The official Google Blog provides
more information and examples of finding some of this material in this

post.

The move comes
a couple of days after it was

announced that Google was resuming its library scanning project, which
includes works that are in and out of copyright. Works that are in copyright are
not reprinted online without explicit publisher approval.

Google book scanning
still on hold from News.com has more follow up on the resumption of
scanning, as well as how well-known quotes from some classic books fail to bring
up these books in Google Print’s top results.

Remember, some of this "public domain" material might not be available
outside the US since Google is
using different
dates to determine copyright around the globe. It’s pre-1922 for the U.S.

The same blog post also points out (in a postscript) that others have been
digitizing public domain materials for years. Heck, Project Gutenberg has been
around since 1973. This
post includes
a few comments from its founder, Michael Hart.

If you’re looking for a one-stop shop for public domain books, I can’t say
enough good things about The
Online Books Page from the University of Pennsylvania. It organizes and
lists thousands of books (including Gutenberg content and now some Google Print
content) from many digitization projects. It’s amazing how much is added each
day. Here’s the "new
listings" page that also offers an RSS feed.

Happy reading!

Postscript: The British Library and MSN said the will work together to
digitise around 100,000 out-of-copyright books for MSN Boook Search. More in the
news release
and this

News.com story. About a week ago
MSN joined the
Open Content Alliance.

Postscript 2: Note to Google. I was reviewing a few public domain
titles. How about a link to make the page larger? SITB offers this feature.
Also, what about being able to access a page by page number after reviewing a
table-of-contents or index?

Postscript 3: Let’s not forget about other book digitization projects
from Europe
and a group of
German publishers.