Monday, June 11, 2007

'Cause it's not good enough to just be on the page

MSU is joining the Google Book Search project.

And in other news, Oxford University Press is warming to the project. Ah, but students aren't always happy about laptop computers in the classroom. (via the Chronicle.)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any word on whether this is going to include the participating universities' special collections of primary source materials in addition to their regular collections? I'm thinking in particular of the William Clements Library at U of M.

Gavin said...

I haven't seen specific information, but I would imagine. For example, I know that books scanned at MSU will include the agriculture collection, much of which is in Special Collections.

Anonymous said...

Interesting . . . I'm just wondering about the logistics of scanning delicate primary source materials. Of course, there are many things about modern technology that I simply don't understand.

Gavin said...

Again, I know nothing about the specific details, but I imagine that there must be a special procedure for archival books. I need to dig up my sources, but what I've been able to gather has been intriguing. For example, all the pages are turned by hand, and the "scanner" itself must simply be a high-megabit digital camera—there are reports of portions of fingers fouling the captured images, and the page rate at which the materials are being digitized is nothing less than astounding. If I get some time, I'll try to dig up a link or two.