World History
Oh, the world is changing...
I have spent most of today browsing Google Print. And I am amazed.
Here is a description of the project from the Google Blog:
"The world's libraries are a tremendous source of knowledge, much of which has never been available online. One of our goals for Google Print is to change that, and today we've taken an exciting step toward meeting it: making available a number of public domain books that were never subject to copyright or whose copyright has expired. We can show every page because these books are in the public domain. (For books not in the public domain we only show small snippets of the work unless the publisher or copyright holder has given us permission to show more.)"
"Our partner libraries ?- the University of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, the New York Public Library, and Oxford ?- have preserved and nurtured these books through decades of wear and tear, and we're excited to play a part in ensuring that they, and the knowledge they contain, will be more accessible than ever for decades to come."
Google is still early in this project but there is a ton of information online already. Historians are going to have easy acces to everything published before 1923 (and hence in the public domain) and owned by a participating library when this is completed.
For example, I did a phrase search for "Abraham Lincoln" and limited it to the years 1840 to 1922. This resulted in over 9000 hits! Many of these were references to Lincoln in material not primarily about Lincoln but a lot of it was actual public domain books about him.
This is just overwhelming. The world has changed dramatically seemingly overnight. We all know that people get most of their information on the Web now. This has meant that books have been excluded when searches are done. Not anymore! As Google scans them in, they now also appear when you type in information in that box. Further, as copyright limits the transmission of information from newer books, it will invariably aim searchers to full-text public domain material. This will help to bring primary source material to the front of web searching.
I do have one complaint. Printing and copying text from the books is impossible. I fully understand this with books still under copyright. By all means, give the searcher just enough to encourage them to buy the book. But public domain books? Why not allow searchers to copy and print it? Many students (and scholars) will give up on Google Print if they have to manually retype everything they find to use it in a paper.
I will be using Google Print a lot. I have found a great deal of source material for several of my research projects I had no clue was out there before today. And I am a good library researcher! The world has changed. And I am liking it.
- Korean War Historical Images
Korean War Historical Images has pictures taken by U.S. Army photographers during the Korean War. It is from the U.S. Army Korea Media Center. It is hosted at flickr. This is a good collection of photos and definitely shows some unique shots of the Korean...
- Free Full-text Berkshire Encyclopedias
I do not usually like to give free plugs to commercial vendors of history products. However, I appreciate that Berkshire is giving a free preview of many of their new products including Global Perspectives on the United States and the Berkshire Encyclopedia...
- Indian Council Of Historical Research
Indian Council of Historical Research. This is the official site promoting the study and scientific writing of history in India. It features research projects, seminars and symposia, and journals published. Located in New Delhi with regional centers in...
- The Library Legacy Of Andrew Carnegie
The Library Legacy of Andrew Carnegie. I am highlighting a link page today which covers resources relating to the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie as it related to libraries. The site was created by Larry Nix. He noted, "Andrew Carnegie was often referred...
- History
History. This is a copy of this classic article from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. I thought it would be worth pointing to as it is well written. I tried to find a link to this article from a complete copy of the 1911 Britannica. There are dozens...
World History
Google Print
Oh, the world is changing...
I have spent most of today browsing Google Print. And I am amazed.
Here is a description of the project from the Google Blog:
"The world's libraries are a tremendous source of knowledge, much of which has never been available online. One of our goals for Google Print is to change that, and today we've taken an exciting step toward meeting it: making available a number of public domain books that were never subject to copyright or whose copyright has expired. We can show every page because these books are in the public domain. (For books not in the public domain we only show small snippets of the work unless the publisher or copyright holder has given us permission to show more.)"
"Our partner libraries ?- the University of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, the New York Public Library, and Oxford ?- have preserved and nurtured these books through decades of wear and tear, and we're excited to play a part in ensuring that they, and the knowledge they contain, will be more accessible than ever for decades to come."
Google is still early in this project but there is a ton of information online already. Historians are going to have easy acces to everything published before 1923 (and hence in the public domain) and owned by a participating library when this is completed.
For example, I did a phrase search for "Abraham Lincoln" and limited it to the years 1840 to 1922. This resulted in over 9000 hits! Many of these were references to Lincoln in material not primarily about Lincoln but a lot of it was actual public domain books about him.
This is just overwhelming. The world has changed dramatically seemingly overnight. We all know that people get most of their information on the Web now. This has meant that books have been excluded when searches are done. Not anymore! As Google scans them in, they now also appear when you type in information in that box. Further, as copyright limits the transmission of information from newer books, it will invariably aim searchers to full-text public domain material. This will help to bring primary source material to the front of web searching.
I do have one complaint. Printing and copying text from the books is impossible. I fully understand this with books still under copyright. By all means, give the searcher just enough to encourage them to buy the book. But public domain books? Why not allow searchers to copy and print it? Many students (and scholars) will give up on Google Print if they have to manually retype everything they find to use it in a paper.
I will be using Google Print a lot. I have found a great deal of source material for several of my research projects I had no clue was out there before today. And I am a good library researcher! The world has changed. And I am liking it.
- Korean War Historical Images
Korean War Historical Images has pictures taken by U.S. Army photographers during the Korean War. It is from the U.S. Army Korea Media Center. It is hosted at flickr. This is a good collection of photos and definitely shows some unique shots of the Korean...
- Free Full-text Berkshire Encyclopedias
I do not usually like to give free plugs to commercial vendors of history products. However, I appreciate that Berkshire is giving a free preview of many of their new products including Global Perspectives on the United States and the Berkshire Encyclopedia...
- Indian Council Of Historical Research
Indian Council of Historical Research. This is the official site promoting the study and scientific writing of history in India. It features research projects, seminars and symposia, and journals published. Located in New Delhi with regional centers in...
- The Library Legacy Of Andrew Carnegie
The Library Legacy of Andrew Carnegie. I am highlighting a link page today which covers resources relating to the philanthropy of Andrew Carnegie as it related to libraries. The site was created by Larry Nix. He noted, "Andrew Carnegie was often referred...
- History
History. This is a copy of this classic article from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica. I thought it would be worth pointing to as it is well written. I tried to find a link to this article from a complete copy of the 1911 Britannica. There are dozens...