Let’s see how far this goes but, Google Print Beta seems to be live. I’ve been pretty skeptical and actually wary of the whole process. Brewster Kahle has some really valid points about the whole process but…
I looked up a few nonfiction books that my library didn’t own and had to ILL for patrons in the past six months. I found a some of the titles in their entirety and searchable online. I had to log in once with my gmail account to view the content of one but otherwise, it works as advertised, it’s free, it’s simple, and actually has content, both old and new.
For example: glass salt dishes
I’m going to remain willfully ambivalent about the whole thing for now, but will use probably it on the reference desk every opportunity I can, especially if a patron is looking for something specific that we don’t own or can’t own. I would still like our library to provide a list of links for freely available ebooks and more in other languages, I know they exist. Google may seem free, I’m just worried about the long term costs to libraries and freedom of information.
Currently watching: The Safety of Objects (based on the book by A.M. Homes)