Comments on: QA Google Books?

By: Kerim Friedman

Kerim Friedman — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 15:49:43 +0000

There's actually been quite a bit of discussion about this. But it does seem that Google has recently added some quality control measures.

By: raydavis

raydavis — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:49:31 +0000

I’ve been intending to write about this problem for years now, starting back in the days of that wretched boondoggle, the Million Book Project(s), but I always end up sputtering in rage. Missing pages aren’t just a promise deferred; they’re a promise possibly permanently killed, given how glibly bureaucrats tend to assume that phyical media are disposable once they’ve been “digitally archived.” I’ve heard that many Google collaborators, at least, are aware of the issue, but I haven’t heard of any solutions being put in place yet. Instead, publicity continues to center around copyright issues or the number of volumes.

By: anajanainanelson

anajanainanelson — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 16:20:21 +0000

Although I have rarely come accross it, I enjoy the marginalia. The bad scanning is, indeed, annoying. Mostly, though, the feeling it brings out when I come accross it, which is not very often (and I am an avid user of google books) is that of sympathy. I always picture this tired undergraduate work-study student after hours of scanning every single day. When he or she realizes that they have scanned it wrong they make an assessment of whether or not it is readable. There is little incentive to scanning the same page again. For us, the consumers, it impairs our ability to search for words in the book. On the other hand, we have so many resources available for this search (the index, other words that might be close to the one we are searching for, full quotes that might be on the internet somewhere) that it is hard to complain. I also can’t bring myself to to look a gift horse in the mouth. I can’t think of a tool more useful to my academic life than google books: makes citations easier and more complete, saves trips to the library, gives me access to texts I would never find in the consortium libraries, saves me from carrying around books wherever I go.

Back on the subject of quality. The reason why I don’t come accross much bad scanning might be the publishing date of the books I am looking at. Many are in the 10 years old range. They might have digitized version offered to search engine by the publishers themselves (Lynne-Reiner). If most of the books I needed were badly scanned, I’m sure I’d have less sympathy for the undergraduate scanning it.

bjins

jana

By: Dance

Dance — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 15:40:28 +0000

The Little Professor mentions this periodically.