Though I am for Open Access, But here I beg to differ with the comments of Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam as added below the Google Item. Google policy change has been in regard to "public domain books". That is - books out of Copy-Right Provisions. So (be)aware of the copy right provisions before you digitise "all books" of your library collection and make them freely available through web. --Sukhdev Singh, NIC. On 06/09/06, Subbiah Arunachalam <subbiah_a@yahoo.com> wrote:
"Google has changed its policy and will now allow users to download full-image files of public domain books in its Google Book Search collection. Until now, Google had insisted that readers remain connected to Google while they read any public domain books online. Why the change in policy? According to Adam M. Smith, product manager for Google Book Search, "It stemmed from listening to users and our library partners." Competition may have had some influence, however, both from the downloading policies of the Open Content Alliance and, now, from Google's own library partners. For example, the University of Michigan—one of Google Book Search's most generous and activist library partners—has begun releasing MBooks to the open Web, as well as to its campus users. The MBooks collection currently includes hundreds of thousands of books Google has digitized from the University of Michigan's library collection. The MBooks offer different features than the versions Google Book Search supplies directly. It also includes in-copyright books, though only to produce individual book indexing...." - From Peter Suber's blog.
Friends:
Indian and other developing university libraries may follow the Michigan University Library and digitize all the books in their collections and make them available free on the web.
Subbiah Arunachalam
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