The University of Michigan has announced a collaboration with Booksurge, Amazon’s print on demand service. As a result Booksurge will offer reprints of some 400,000 rare, out-of-print and out-of-copyright books from its library in soft cover editions at prices from $10 to $45.
The books are in more than 200 languages from Acoli to Zulu and include a 1898 book on nursing by Florence Nightingale, "Notes on Nursing: What it is and What it is not." Some of the books are one of kind, meaning they had been available only from the shelves of the University of Michigan.
The move is now possible because of the university's project to digitize its collection in partnership with Google and the as books in the Michigan-Amazon deal are in the public domain, the revenues generated will be split between Booksurge and the University.
The arrangement is a significant addition to BookSurge's inventory and it will be interesting to watch if others follow and whether the arrangements will be exclusive or open. The other question is how Google will respond as the move could be seen as cutting off what many thought was an obvious revenue stream .
Today the deal involves public domain works and as we wrote earlier this week with respect to the dispute between Wikipedia and The National Portrait Gallery in the UK making – he who owns the public domain rendition and digitalises it can now earn from it.
University of Michigan libraries Dean Paul Courant said the arrangement means "books unavailable for a century or more will be able to go back into print, one copy at a time." Albeit at a new price.
Showing posts with label public domain works. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public domain works. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Are Google Establishing Their Sales Channels?
So to claim for the crown of the biggest digital library, Sony has now struck a deal with Google, the result being is a half million copyright-free books available on its Reader device.
The New York Times article certainly was an interesting one, not because of what it reported, but because of what it didn’t report.
So we have 500,000 out of copyright titles published pre 1923. True there are many classics in there and many hidden gems but there is also lots of other titles which just make up the numbers and it would appear at first glance, that is what Sony are after – numbers. They now can claim more than Amazon, but does it matter? They may have merely made the haystack bigger and presented their reader with lots of cheap or free reads.
So are they to sell these ‘free’ books and at what price? Will half a million cheap reads devalue the far fewer current reads or make their value greater? Will Google now do deals with all the other look-alikes, so effectively selling the material which Google aim to give away free under Google Book Search? Will Amazon now do a deal with Google which would make as much sense as Sony? Is the deal exclusive or the first of many licensing deals? Will these be DRM free?
The big question is what will happen when Google gets its way over the settlement and hovers up all the orphans? Is this the real prize? Is establishing a sales channel or channels the real objective of the liaison?
Its interesting to sit back and realise that the players who are helping shape the industry are not indigenous to it, have no real credentials or history within it, some may say are fickle and apt to follow the route taken by Live Book Search and yet are introducing change at a rate often faster than the industry can ingest.
The New York Times article certainly was an interesting one, not because of what it reported, but because of what it didn’t report.
So we have 500,000 out of copyright titles published pre 1923. True there are many classics in there and many hidden gems but there is also lots of other titles which just make up the numbers and it would appear at first glance, that is what Sony are after – numbers. They now can claim more than Amazon, but does it matter? They may have merely made the haystack bigger and presented their reader with lots of cheap or free reads.
So are they to sell these ‘free’ books and at what price? Will half a million cheap reads devalue the far fewer current reads or make their value greater? Will Google now do deals with all the other look-alikes, so effectively selling the material which Google aim to give away free under Google Book Search? Will Amazon now do a deal with Google which would make as much sense as Sony? Is the deal exclusive or the first of many licensing deals? Will these be DRM free?
The big question is what will happen when Google gets its way over the settlement and hovers up all the orphans? Is this the real prize? Is establishing a sales channel or channels the real objective of the liaison?
Its interesting to sit back and realise that the players who are helping shape the industry are not indigenous to it, have no real credentials or history within it, some may say are fickle and apt to follow the route taken by Live Book Search and yet are introducing change at a rate often faster than the industry can ingest.
Friday, October 10, 2008
What Role Do Libraries Play in the Digital Age?
Many have asked what the role of the library will be in the new digital age? For some it’s about funding, for others information access and other preservation. The relationship between private enterprise and public funding is ever changing and this introduces further new challenges in this digital age.
Richard K Johnson has written a paper ‘Free Our Libraries’ which was commissioned by the Boston Library Consortium with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for last month’s Universal Access Digital Library Summit in Boston. The paper raises the thorny issues of ownership, investment and the current land of the public domain works by the omnivores who are scanning for ownership.
Public domain is that public domain and we must think hard before we open the vaults and let the scanners in on their terms. Some would argue its too late the doors are wide open, the treasures taken and the libraries stand like giant warehouses full of books and cost whilst the traffic moves onto the virtual world.
The other issue not touch in this excellent paper is that of the ‘grey area that sits between public domain and in print. Who decides what book sits where, what can go and what is still in copyright?
The final issue is defining the role of the library in terms of its digital marketplace and relationship with commercial retail. If a library can give free access to digital content why would you buy it elsewhere? In the physical world you had to go there, the book you wanted could be out or unavailable and you had to take it back. Today you just need to register, log on and download. Perhaps we could stagger the release dates such that libraries only can issue new titles after 6 months but that hardly addresses the issue which isn’t going away.
We may not agree with all its thinking and conclusions but it is a paper we recommend you to read.
Richard K Johnson has written a paper ‘Free Our Libraries’ which was commissioned by the Boston Library Consortium with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation for last month’s Universal Access Digital Library Summit in Boston. The paper raises the thorny issues of ownership, investment and the current land of the public domain works by the omnivores who are scanning for ownership.
Public domain is that public domain and we must think hard before we open the vaults and let the scanners in on their terms. Some would argue its too late the doors are wide open, the treasures taken and the libraries stand like giant warehouses full of books and cost whilst the traffic moves onto the virtual world.
The other issue not touch in this excellent paper is that of the ‘grey area that sits between public domain and in print. Who decides what book sits where, what can go and what is still in copyright?
The final issue is defining the role of the library in terms of its digital marketplace and relationship with commercial retail. If a library can give free access to digital content why would you buy it elsewhere? In the physical world you had to go there, the book you wanted could be out or unavailable and you had to take it back. Today you just need to register, log on and download. Perhaps we could stagger the release dates such that libraries only can issue new titles after 6 months but that hardly addresses the issue which isn’t going away.
We may not agree with all its thinking and conclusions but it is a paper we recommend you to read.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Whose Book is it Anyway?
It is often interesting to find several different angles of an issue being raised.
Yesterday we read in the Times the story about literary agents and that any literary agent now needs authors with form: preferably famous, prolific and also deceased within the past 70 years. Literary estates are now seen by some as ‘safe bets’. Often they have been neglected, they often have or it is relatively easy have their rights reverted and often areas such as foreign rights have not been fully exploited.
We referred to this area as often being the ‘grey area’ and somewhere between the ‘white’ that is public domain works, (pre 1920) and ‘black’ in copyright, in print and well recorded and with a living vested interest – the author. The digital world now throws up many opportunities to bring back previously successful works, or even those that failed first time, but ones that may now deserve a second chance.
However it is not just literary agents that have seen this opportunity. Publishers are increasingly dusting down their back list and discovering titles which are relatively cheap to bring back. Others are scouring the libraries and second hand shops for gems.
Some titles will be dusted down, given a new jacket, maybe a new title and even re-typeset and then brought back as front list. Others may be scanned and converted to print on demand or digital only formats. There have always been packagers and reprint houses, but today many have now joined their ranks. Also ‘classics’ which were once said to have had their day, are currently enjoying a new one and being extended into new genre.
Today we also read that Barnes & Noble plans to expand its rare book department into a larger one in Broadway and to a more prominent position within the store. They have long sold bargain books and printed packaged editions.
Today the Bookseller also reported that Google has signed up France's second largest library, the municipal library of Lyon as part of Google's Book Search Library project. It will give internet users full text access to public domain works, through Google Book Search. Lyon will join 29 other libraries such as, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University and Princeton University in the project.
Some could be said to be merely scanning anything that has moved.
So the market is awakening to the vast volume of titles available and starting to create a comprehensive offer of all, to all. The ‘grey area’ is an obvious area for a potential land grab, as many titles have a poor if no rights ownership records and these ‘orphans’ can now be adopted relatively easily.
However, what does all this mean with respect to what is sold, to whom, in what form and by whom. Can estates and authors make sure that their copyright is not adopted without permissions? How do you establish what is public domain? Who owns the digital rights to old titles? How does Google intend to monetise its investment in the long run? Does print on demand mean ‘always in print’?
There are many more questions and many can be simply answered by those better qualified to answer than ourselves. However, we are now clearly entering into a new exciting ‘long tail’ phase, where anything ever published will be potentially available for all. But what controls are needed, do they exist today and who will and can it be policed?
Yesterday we read in the Times the story about literary agents and that any literary agent now needs authors with form: preferably famous, prolific and also deceased within the past 70 years. Literary estates are now seen by some as ‘safe bets’. Often they have been neglected, they often have or it is relatively easy have their rights reverted and often areas such as foreign rights have not been fully exploited.
We referred to this area as often being the ‘grey area’ and somewhere between the ‘white’ that is public domain works, (pre 1920) and ‘black’ in copyright, in print and well recorded and with a living vested interest – the author. The digital world now throws up many opportunities to bring back previously successful works, or even those that failed first time, but ones that may now deserve a second chance.
However it is not just literary agents that have seen this opportunity. Publishers are increasingly dusting down their back list and discovering titles which are relatively cheap to bring back. Others are scouring the libraries and second hand shops for gems.
Some titles will be dusted down, given a new jacket, maybe a new title and even re-typeset and then brought back as front list. Others may be scanned and converted to print on demand or digital only formats. There have always been packagers and reprint houses, but today many have now joined their ranks. Also ‘classics’ which were once said to have had their day, are currently enjoying a new one and being extended into new genre.
Today we also read that Barnes & Noble plans to expand its rare book department into a larger one in Broadway and to a more prominent position within the store. They have long sold bargain books and printed packaged editions.
Today the Bookseller also reported that Google has signed up France's second largest library, the municipal library of Lyon as part of Google's Book Search Library project. It will give internet users full text access to public domain works, through Google Book Search. Lyon will join 29 other libraries such as, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University and Princeton University in the project.
Some could be said to be merely scanning anything that has moved.
So the market is awakening to the vast volume of titles available and starting to create a comprehensive offer of all, to all. The ‘grey area’ is an obvious area for a potential land grab, as many titles have a poor if no rights ownership records and these ‘orphans’ can now be adopted relatively easily.
However, what does all this mean with respect to what is sold, to whom, in what form and by whom. Can estates and authors make sure that their copyright is not adopted without permissions? How do you establish what is public domain? Who owns the digital rights to old titles? How does Google intend to monetise its investment in the long run? Does print on demand mean ‘always in print’?
There are many more questions and many can be simply answered by those better qualified to answer than ourselves. However, we are now clearly entering into a new exciting ‘long tail’ phase, where anything ever published will be potentially available for all. But what controls are needed, do they exist today and who will and can it be policed?
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