First Fruits of Google Library Appear

by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- Publishers Weekly, 11/3/2005

Beginning today, Google is making the first public domain titles scanned from its library partners available through Google Print. Until now, all books appearing in Google Print have been supplied by publishers.

Google Print's Adam Smith said that by making the PD titles available, Google hopes users "will see the richness of materials available in the library collections." Examples of works that are now available include Civil War histories, government documents and some works of Henry James. Users can view the entire works of the PD titles, and, if they want, print out the material page by page.

Smith said that now that Google has added the first group of PD titles to Google Print it will continue to add more books on a regular basis. Google has agreements with five libraries to scan all or parts of their collections, and Google's intention to scan copyrighted books at libraries has, of course, led to lawsuits by the Authors Guild and AAP.