23-Jan-2009
Coming Soon --- to your computer - the biggest public library in the world!
You're a director in Estes Park, Colorado. You're planning a new production of Hamlet. You've heard of an out of print treatise on Shakespeare that might help you get a fresh take on the play. The problem: the only known hard copy is in a library in Manhattan. Your budget won't send you to N.Y. to do research.
Or you're a theater arts major at a college in Springfield, Illinois. You're writing a term paper on Restoration Comedy. There's a great book on the subject, which would help you to get an A+, but it's halfway across the country --- at a library in Southern California.
In fact, there are millions of out of print books sitting on shelves in libraries all over the country. But, unless the particular volume you want is available within a reasonable distance to your location, up until now, you've pretty much been out of luck.
Well - not anymore.
A few years ago Google entered into an agreement with the libraries of many major universities to scan the millions of books in their collections and make three and four line snippets available online. Some books were in the public domain. But many were still under copyright. The Authors Guild, which represents thousands and thousands of authors throughout the country, cried "Copyright infringement" and filed a class action suit. (Disclaimer: I am a member of the Authors Guild.) Several major publishers also sued Google on their own. After two and one half years of negotiations, the Guild has just reached a settlement agreement with Google. And what a settlement it promises to be!
Under the Guild/Google landmark agreement, millions --- possibly even tens of millions - of books, long out of print, will be made available online. Legally. Not just three and four line snippets --- the entire book. Books that are public domain. Books that are still under copyright. Books that have long been difficult to find. No single library would have the space on their shelves to hold them all. For the theater arts major in Springfield, the director in Estes Park, the researcher, or just someone who likes to read, these books will be just a mouse click or two away on their own computers. Anyone will be able to access them at any time of the day or night. Anyone will be able to print off pages, chapters, and, in most cases, the entire book (for a fee). If the internet is the information superhighway, it's about to rocket off into the stratsophere, thanks to the Authors Guild and Google.
There'll be four ways you'll be able to access these books:
1. Public Access. Google will make available to the 16, 500 public library buildings in the country a free portal into the database that will contain these out of print titles, so you can go to your local public library computers and access the database. If the library chooses, it may allow its patrons to print out specific pages from these books. A new entity called the Book Registry (which will be owned by authors and publishers) will set the per page fee.
2. Preview. Similar to Amazon's search inside the book, you can see three or four line snippets or entire pages. You can scroll back or forward several pages, up to 20% of the book.
3. Online edition. You can set up a special account with Google by which you'll be able to buy an online edition and view the entire book at a price initially ranging between $1.99 up to $29.99. (Google will set the initial price; later rights holders may change it up or down as they wish.) It's expected, however, the mean price will be $5.99. Titles won't be available in PDF form. But you may be able to print out the entire book, twenty pages at a time.
4. Insitutional usages. Colleges and universities will pay an annual fee for unlimited use by their faculty and students - the amount of the fee will be based on the school's population. That's how the theater arts major, sitting in her dorm room at 3 a.m., will be able to access and even print out up to 20 pages at a time of the book on Restoration Comedy.
Again --- remember most of these titles will have been long out of print --- books you wouldn't have an easy time finding otherwise. (Authors and publishers will also have the option of making some or all of their in print titles available too.) At present, the books will only be available for domestic (U.S.) use; special software will disable them for foreign access.
These books will be text only - no images.
The Association of American Publishers is warm to the idea. The lawyers will present the settlement agreement to a Federal judge for approval at a hearing on June 11, 2009. A decision is expected later this summer or fall. Once that happens, the mechanics will be put into place.
And then you'll have the biggest public library in the world as close as your computer. Exciting, isn't it?
