PressEthic

A blog on eWeek.com reported that some smaller publishers are benefiting from Google's new book search, which offers views of partial text. This article caught my eye because I used to work as an Editorial Assistant at Springer, a scientific publishing company prominently featured in the article.

The blog cites an article from Reuters reporting that other smaller publishing companies, including Oxford University Press, have benefited from the new Google search function.

Yet, larger publishers have filed lawsuits against Google citing copyright infringement. It seems that specialty book publishers, like Springer, would benefit from potential buyers being able to view parts of the text to determine if the book suits their needs. However, publishers do have a case in terms of copyright infringement when Google publishes portions of their books, in some cases allowing full text viewing and downloading.

In terms of scanning book content to decide whether or not to purchase, this service seems like it could benefit the reader and the publisher alike. But this sort of availability of book content online, and in some cases full text, is just another example of the web's conquest of print. According to eWeek,

Publisher HarperCollins and Austin, Texas-based LibreDigital announced today a hosted service called LibreDigital Warehouse that will give publishers and booksellers the ability to deliver searchable book content on their own Web sites.

With more and more print publications being offered online, will the day come when bookshelf space is replaced by hard drive space? When instead of "curling up with a good book" readers will be curling up with their laptops? It seems that the book publishing industry might not be far behind the periodical publishers offering content online.