Reading in Cyberspace?!

Reading in Cyberspace?!?

In your journal answer the following questions:
1. What effect will this library-based digitization have on Google’s relationships with publishers?
2. How have Google’s competitors, such as Yahoo! or Microsoft, respond to this challenge?
3. What impact could this project have on the access to information?
4.Will librarians be threatened by the new development?
5. What do you think?

What is Google? Google is an online website that runs on unique combination of advanced hardware and software. It is a program that was meant to make our search experience to be more efficient and incredibly fast.

Google began in January of 1996 as just a research project. People of Google believed that the relationships between websites would produce better results than other techniques, where other search engines at the time would search and give results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page.

Google has experienced many various controversies over the years. Their Book Search (library – based) has created them problems with publishers and authors. I believe that would weaken the relationship between Google and publishers. Google has put effort into digitalizing millions of books and make full text searchable. Publishers do not believe that what Google is doing is “fair use” thus, having the thought that it should be illegal.

Google has three categories of books contained in its index:

1. Books who are not under copyright and are assessable to the public.(books in print)

- These books, Google can fully display so it can be read online

2. Books that are under copyright and are available to the public.

- The publisher controls how much of the book is exposed/displayed.

3. Books who are under copyright and are not necessarily available in print.

- Google is only allowed to show “snippets.”

Google has been profiting from the book fragments, publishers believe that this is going against the law of “fair use” thus being illegal. This controversy has weakened the relationship between Google and publishers.

The whole purpose of Google is to increase the access to people that need information. People can research and find books that they desire, without getting out of the comfort of their own home. It would also help out book lovers, with what Google is doing, showing snippets of a book, they are showing the readers what the book is kind of like, so they would have an idea of what they book is like before they buy it. I also believe it is a great idea, where it gives consumers an Idea of what it is about, so they can ask them self if they are really into the novel.

I do not believe that Google is a threat to Librarians. The only full text displays of books are books that are no longer in print. Also the books that are available in a library or in book store, Google only gives snippets of the book. Liberians are not getting replaced; Google is just helping out the book lovers out there with their developed technology. Librarians should not be threaten or scared because what threat is there to be afraid of?

I do believe that what Google is doing is illegal and is within the fair use law. However would I ever use the Book search program of Google? I doubt it, I’m not all that of a book lover. It would not be all that useful to me, for some reason I can not just sit down and read a book, I rather watch it if its on video. Its not like I don’t read books though, it’s just that not a lot of books interest me.