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collegekidsmom
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« Reply #15 on: March 24, 2008, 10:20:06 PM » |
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A lot of scanning, say in journal digitizing projects is destructive scanning. Google Books, however, is checking the books out of research libraries, taking them to a facility to scan, and returning the books to the owning libraries. So, no harm there. Yes, Google Books is only one of the many book scanning initiatives going on now-others include Open Content Alliance and Million Books Project(for those that don't want to adhere to Google's restrictions).
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,285
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #16 on: March 24, 2008, 10:56:23 PM » |
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Hey, when the hell did this happen--Microsoft Live Search Books: http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=&scope=books . The search feature is crude but there is some great 19th century content. |
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the_honey_badger
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« Reply #17 on: March 24, 2008, 11:10:06 PM » |
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Oh Google books! Its my own personal life and career saver. Here at Fabulous R3, the research requirement is for an R1 but with no resources and no funding. Fortunately, I work on 18th and 19th century political rhetoric. Suddenly, I too have "digital resources" that those at wealthier schools take for granted. I have entire downloaded copies of all sorts of books, memoirs and who-all-knows-what because of Internet Archive and Google books. Many are rare and only at libraries more than 1000 miles away.
I. Love. Google. Books.
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_____________________________________
"Honey badger don't care."
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danny_boy
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« Reply #18 on: March 25, 2008, 12:52:26 AM » |
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I've found plenty of google books that look as though they were scanned by a drunk. Punch-drunk, maybe. Scanning is not fun. Scanning is one step up from picking cotton. It's apparently a punch-drunk machine scanning in as many as 3000 pages per hour. I doubt there's some third world labor pool standing next to a scanner pushing a button for every page. |
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onion
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« Reply #19 on: March 25, 2008, 09:16:22 AM » |
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I've found plenty of google books that look as though they were scanned by a drunk. Punch-drunk, maybe. Scanning is not fun. Scanning is one step up from picking cotton. It's apparently a punch-drunk machine scanning in as many as 3000 pages per hour. I doubt there's some third world labor pool standing next to a scanner pushing a button for every page. No, just an underpaid graduate student (in some cases) feeding the chunk of material into the scary machine. |
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tenured_feminist
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« Reply #20 on: March 25, 2008, 10:19:02 AM » |
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I worked for a different scanning/imaging project years ago. I was required to slice the binding of the book with an exacto knife, and then feed the pages into this big scary jumbo scanner (which may account for some of the screwed-up pages). When I was finished, I was required to THROW THE BOOK IN THE TRASH. I'm sorry for screaming, but as a historian, it absolutely killed me to do that.
The mean librarian explained to me that this was the wave of the future and that the library couldn't physically store all of these books while acquiring new ones, etc etc. But every time I see a munked up page on GB or something similar, I can't help but think I was a little bit more right than the librarian. Then again, I take in stray books the way others rescue animals.
I think I am going to go throw up now. For a librarian to take that attitude is, to me, akin to a medical doctor conducting capital punishment. |
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You people are not fooling me. I know exactly what occurred in that thread, and I know exactly what you all are doing. |
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daurousseau
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« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2008, 11:45:55 AM » |
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I worked for a different scanning/imaging project years ago. I was required to slice the binding of the book with an exacto knife, and then feed the pages into this big scary jumbo scanner (which may account for some of the screwed-up pages). When I was finished, I was required to THROW THE BOOK IN THE TRASH. I'm sorry for screaming, but as a historian, it absolutely killed me to do that.
The mean librarian explained to me that this was the wave of the future and that the library couldn't physically store all of these books while acquiring new ones, etc etc. But every time I see a munked up page on GB or something similar, I can't help but think I was a little bit more right than the librarian. Then again, I take in stray books the way others rescue animals.
I think I am going to go throw up now. For a librarian to take that attitude is, to me, akin to a medical doctor conducting capital punishment. Resentment of the librarian would only make sense if the copy scanned was a unique copy in the world. If you want to know the actual worth of a book, talk to the buyers at Powell's. The copy of Palmer's History of the Modern World that you just razored up and threw in the trash may have been worth zero while still intact. The buyers love telling you how common as dirt some books are. |
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onion
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« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2008, 01:33:46 PM » |
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I worked for a different scanning/imaging project years ago. I was required to slice the binding of the book with an exacto knife, and then feed the pages into this big scary jumbo scanner (which may account for some of the screwed-up pages). When I was finished, I was required to THROW THE BOOK IN THE TRASH. I'm sorry for screaming, but as a historian, it absolutely killed me to do that.
The mean librarian explained to me that this was the wave of the future and that the library couldn't physically store all of these books while acquiring new ones, etc etc. But every time I see a munked up page on GB or something similar, I can't help but think I was a little bit more right than the librarian. Then again, I take in stray books the way others rescue animals.
I think I am going to go throw up now. For a librarian to take that attitude is, to me, akin to a medical doctor conducting capital punishment. Resentment of the librarian would only make sense if the copy scanned was a unique copy in the world. If you want to know the actual worth of a book, talk to the buyers at Powell's. The copy of Palmer's History of the Modern World that you just razored up and threw in the trash may have been worth zero while still intact. The buyers love telling you how common as dirt some books are. Yes, but some of the books were unique, with fewer than 10 extant copies and unique plates and lithographs. That bothered me. |
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larryc
Hu hatin'
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 18,285
Eschew the hu.
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« Reply #23 on: March 25, 2008, 01:47:45 PM » |
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I have a worse conversion story. There was a project in Washington State where a private firm was contracted to microfilm some huge runs of historic newspapers dating back to the territorial period. After they microfilmed the papers they had them pulped and recycled! Now the only way to access these papers is to buy a reel of microfilm--and guess who sells it?
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namazu
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« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2008, 03:10:29 PM » |
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<la la la> I can't hear you. <la la la>
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daniel_von_flanagan
<redacted>
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 9,460
Works all day. Posts all night. Needs sleep.
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« Reply #26 on: March 25, 2008, 10:47:12 PM » |
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I take a digital camera with me when I go to libraries - especially libraries at other universities - and use that instead of a scanner. I've been told by some students that they do the same thing with textbooks - go to the bookstore and photograph the text in situ. - DvF
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The U.S. Education Department is establishing a new national research center to study colleges' ability to successfully educate the country's growing numbers of academically underprepared administrators.
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born2late
I often times wish I had bought Grandpa's farm and stayed on the land. Instead I'm an underemployed
Distinguished Senior Member
Posts: 3,025
Often referred to as an "interesting individual"
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« Reply #27 on: May 22, 2008, 05:09:26 PM » |
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There were a couple of 19th c. sources on my dissertation that I downloaded the entire work from Google books. Also, check Early American Imprints if your library has access to it.
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"nothing says headed towards the margins of society like learning the banjo"
Quando omni flunkus moritati
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aristof_ns
it's harder to get a TT job than to become a
Senior member
Posts: 857
PhD ISO LAC
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« Reply #28 on: May 31, 2008, 07:13:11 PM » |
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Can anyone explain to me the "you've reached your page limit" notice on Google Books? I'd like to be able to build a library, but if I'm only allowed to view a certain number of pages, it may not be so useful....
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Is not American literature the minor literature par excellence, insofar as America claims to federate the most diverse minorities, “a Nation swarming with nations”? —Gilles Deleuze
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francishamit
Junior member
Posts: 80
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« Reply #29 on: November 23, 2009, 04:38:46 AM » |
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I once paid a certain university library fifty dollars for a "Friend of the Library" card to gain access to one books on Civil War medicine. They had the only copy in the area. I was not pleased. So for material in the public domain Google Books is a great resource (although I once found myself looking at a full color rendition of a gloved human hand right over a key paragraph) and you can beat the price and convenience. I just re-read William Howard Russell's "North and South" which is a well written description of the run-up to the Civil War. I've also found contemporary sources on ladies fashion and social events and the filibusters and the Mexican War. All are essential research for my next spy thriller, which stars Rose Greenhow.
On the other hand, I'm not thrilled by the way that Google Books just grabs copyrighted material, including my current novel and my MFA thesis, both of which are supposed to be off limits. I have opted out of the so-called settlement.
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