Library Tech Confidential

Libraries rebuff Google and Microsoft on offers to place books on Web [Int’l Herald Tribune] : “The[se] research libraries, including a large consortium in the Boston area, are instead signing on with the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit effort to make digital material as widely accessible as possible.”

Google’s approach is to scan everything in a collection order to create an unparalleled full-text finding aid that leads users toward purchasing access to a title (or locating a hard copy at a nearby library), whereas OCA only scans out-of-copyright works so as to post titles in their entirety without onerous restrictions.

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Microsoft’s Live Search Books, which indexes texts digitized by the Internet Archive, is now out in beta. [CNet]

Some sample searches:Robert Louis Stevenson, Shakespeare, poetical works, Toronto, ontology.

Here’s a quick round-up of articles on the rival book scanning partnership involving (among others) Yahoo!, Microsoft, and The Internet Archive:

• Open Content Alliance Rises to the Challenge of Google Print [Information Today]
• In Challenge To Google, Yahoo Will Scan Books [New York Times]
• “Where Google makes the books it digitizes available for downloading only in Adobe Acrobat format, the OCA makes all the files available for downloading—from the raw images to the metadata. Books digitized by the OCA are freely available for browsing and downloading on the Internet Archive site.” [Library Journal]

Of course, the Internet Archive has been scanning books since before Google Print came to light; however, Google’s aggressive expansion appears to have spurred the tag-teaming with Yahoo! and MSN. For a taste of what the Open Content Alliance is producing, check out The Open Library; this document lays out founder Brewster Kahle’s vision for the project.

Legal action against Google by copyright holders has taken an interesting twist, too, with Google subpeonaing Yahoo! and Microsoft (among others) for documents meant to bolster its defence.