Makes great sense, and looks exciting. Thanks. Bob I can hardly wait.----- Original Message ----- From: <Jim@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, August 01, 2008 3:56 PM Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Public domain books (Was Google Books)
The question is whether spending all that money on public domain books the best use of such funding? My current feeling is no: I'd rather spend it on improving access to current copyrighted materials and other Bookshare improvements. We get very little demand for public domain books compared to current books and textbooks. We advocated for Google Books to make their public domain books accessible, which they have. Gutenberg is also pretty accessible. What I've been suggesting as a long-term feature is a books on demand feature, where we go get the book for a Bookshare.org member and get it in the collection (whether it's hardcopy or in a place like Google Books or the Internet Archive or wherever). That way, we know our efforts are going to the books that are actually wanted and not spending millions on duplicating accessible public domain books. In the meanwhile, we have a full-time staffer working on getting access to current copyrighted books like the HarperCollins ones that are coming steadily in. We think that's the best dish for the insatiable book lovers of Bookshare.org. Jim To unsubscribe from this list send a blank Email to bksvol-discuss-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxput the word 'unsubscribe' by itself in the subject line. To get a list of available commands, put the word 'help' by itself in the subject line.-- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG.Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 270.5.10/1584 - Release Date: 7/31/2008 12:00 PM
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