On 19 May 2015 at 17:56, Anders Feder <anders.feder.83(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I figured you had already explored that area :) I
sadly do not know anyone
at Google, but noticed the prominent googler Dan Brickley (danbri) is
subscribed to this list. If this message isn't buried in your mailbox, can
you help, Dan?
I was following the thread with interest, as it happens. I have had
only limited contact with the Google Books team since I joined Google,
so I may not be the best contact. But anyway I'll pass
https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-library/2015-May/000012.html
along. As already noted here, the project is in quite a complex
situation but that's no reason not to ask...
cheers,
Dan
Regards,
Anders Feder
2015-05-19 18:41 GMT+02:00 Jake Orlowitz <jorlowitz(a)gmail.com>om>:
Hi Anders,
Thanks for you suggestion. I can assure you that [increased] Google Books
access has been our dream from the start. It's very complicated because of
the contentious legal situation that surrounded the massive scanning and
limited sharing Google has been doing. Because of that, we haven't
prioritized increased access, however we haven't given up on the possibility
of it one day happening. One thing that would be helpful is a personal
contact with someone at Google who works on the Books program. If you know
of any Google-connected Wikipedians, please put us in touch.
Jake Orlowitz
Lead, The Wikipedia Library
User:Ocaasi
On Tue, May 19, 2015 at 6:31 AM Anders Feder <anders.feder.83(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hi,
I have a little idea that could be really helpful for Wikipedians if it
could be implemented. Google has scanned in a vast collection of books. Some
of these scanned pages can be read online via Google Books, and serves an
important resource for Wikipedians confirming the verifiability of text
added to Wikipedia. However, many of the scanned pages can not be read: in
some cases only an arbitrary selection of pages in a given book can be read,
which may not be the ones need; in other cases, pages can not be read at all
or they can only be searched in the severely limited "Snippet View".
Now, there are good reasons why this is the case. The books copyrighted,
and the rightsholders do not want to give their most important goods away
for free to anyone on the internet. However, given Google's support for
Wikipedia, and for the open dissemination of knowledge, could Wikipedia
Library perhaps approach Google and request a much more limited arrangement,
like the ones it has with various journals?
Full access to all books in the Google Books Library Project would be
utopic. But even a limited deal where a short range of pages can be
requested for each book would be extremely helpful, because page numbers are
specified countless references on Wikipedia via the {{cite book}} template -
we just do not have a way to easily get those pages. Yet.
Thank you,
Anders Feder
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