Google Books by Val Andalon

Google provides a service where any of us can go to books.google.com and have access to previews (called “snippets”) of text from books and magazines. Google Books has been of great use for taking a peek at the contents of a book to help make the decision to check it out of a local library or purchase it ( with a link to places to purchase on the page). 

While this is a great tool now, it was a long fight to get to where it is now. There seemed to have been a lot of back and forth between 2004-2015 regarding whether Google was infringing upon the Fair Use Act. The Fair Use ACT is allows the use of portions of copyrighted work without permission from the owner. People had strong opinions on whether Google scanning unauthorized books (obtained by collaborating with libraries around the world) to give access to the people would give them sole rights to digitized material or it creating a monopoly. The Authors Guild along with some others filed a lawsuit against Google. In the end it was found by the courts that because Google was not selling the digitized books and or giving full access to the books for free that it was considered full use. 

Google digitizes books provided by partnered libraries, publishers and authors. Publishers can choose what percentage of each item is available to be displayed. Users can fully access items aged out of copyright. Google indexes all the words in each book, making it easier to find material.  If you are looking for a specific topic and subject within that topic you can narrow your search and find a passage within that book. If it is out of copyright and happened to have been digitize then you can access the full item but if it is still under copyright at least now you know if it is worthwhile to head to your library to check it out. 

👀Learn more👀

Here is a video from Google about Google books:

Check out this video sowing an overview on how to use Google Books:

( don't forget you can speed up playback)

Works Cited

Weisbard, Phyllis Holman. “A Research Revolution in the Making Google Books and More as Sources for Women’s History.” Feminist Collections: A Quarterly of Women’s Studies Resources, vol. 28, no. 2, Winter 2007, pp. 6–13. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.palomar.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lxh&AN=25539056&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Hannay, William M. “Legally Speaking -- Google Books: It Ain’t Over’ Til the Librarian Sings.” Against the Grain, vol. 27, no. 6, Dec. 2015, pp. 49–51. EBSCOhost, https://doi-org.ezproxy.palomar.edu/10.7771/2380-176X.7235.

"Google, Publishers Reach Deal On Book Scanning Plan." All Things Considered, 4 Oct. 2012. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A304772860/OVIC?u=cclc_palomar&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=04bbdeac.