Digitizing Initiatives: Commercial Ventures

Digitizing Initiatives: Commercial Ventures

Commercial Ventures

Amazon.com produces page images, conducts OCR scanning, and makes available to registered users both text search and page image display for a large segment of the books it sells ("millions of pages"), on the premise that the results will enhance book sales. In a Wired.com article written by Gary Wolf titled "The Great Library of Amazonia" dated October 23, 2003, the Amazon.com project is discussed in detail. The article states further that "[Lawrence] Lessig, in partnership with Stanford University librarian Michael Keller, will soon announce a free program to digitize any out-of-print book whose copyright holder wants to make it available to the public."

TFAO surveyed a sample of 67 books containing page images from Amazon.com's inventory in February, 2004 and found that 24 books (36%) contained excerpts and 13 books (19%) contained the "search inside" feature. Please click here for a partial list of Amazon searchable American art titles.

Google Books

Google Inc. collaboraties with institutional libraries to digitize large quantities of books via the Google Books Library Project. The Google initiative to digitize the contents on the New York Public Library, Harvard, Michigan, Oxford and Stanford university libraries will result in a spectacular improvement in the ability of scholars, students and teachers to find relevant texts for further study.

Public domain books are available on an open access basis. Copyrighted material is treated in one of three ways. Google negotiates with cooperating publishers through its Google Books Partner Program for "Limited Preview" of selected entire pages, via search within the books by readers. For scanned books without copyright permissions, "snippets" from pages are available. For remaining books basic information is provided without ability to search within the book. The snippets inform readers about the relevance of the book to their subject of inquiry.

Google explains its service saying:

"For books that enter Book Search through the Library Project, what you see depends on the book's copyright status. We respect copyright law and the tremendous creative effort authors put into their work. If the book is in the public domain and therefore out of copyright, you can page through the entire book and even download it and read it offline. But if the book is under copyright, and the publisher or author is not part of the Partner Program, we only show basic information about the book, similar to a card catalog, and, in some cases, a few snippets -- sentences of your search terms in context. The aim of Google Book Search is to help you discover books and learn where to buy or borrow them, not read them online from start to finish. It's like going to a bookstore and browsing - with a Google twist."

A Google Book Search conducted March 24, 2008 located 82,000 pages from books with the words "American art" and 7,760 pages from books with the phase "American art." Many offer either "Limited Preview" or "snippet" features.

Update: On August 31, 2006 Riva Richmond wrote the following for Marketwatch.com:

Google Inc. (GOOG) on Wednesday plans to begin letting consumers download and print free of charge classic novels and many other, more obscure books that are in the public domain.

Using Google's Book Search service, Web surfers looking for titles like Dante's "Inferno" and Aesop's "Fables" will be able to download PDF files of the books for later reading, to run keyword searches or to print them on paper. Up to now, the service only allowed people to read the out-of-copyright books online. Google supports the service by showing its small, keyword-generated text ads on search-results pages.

The download initiative does not include any books under copyright. For these titles, Book Search only displays basic bibliographic information and, in many cases, small snippets of text surrounding a search term, unless it has permission from the publisher to show more. The company's display of snippets has riled some publishers, but Google has argued the small bites of text constitute fair use.

"Public domain books include both well-known classics and less well-known books on every conceivable subject," said Sidney Verba, director of the Harvard University Library, a partner in the Google Books Library Project, in a statement. "Since people can search the full text of these books, they can find previously buried information about historical events or people, places of interest and matters cultural or scientific. What has been tucked away in large research library collections and available only to a few, can now be discovered and read by people everywhere."

Google's Book Search service is the product of its Books Library Project, which is digitizing books from major libraries around the world in order to make them searchable online. It's partners include the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University, the University of California and the New York Public Library. Google is also conducting a pilot project with the Library of Congress.

While few books on American art history are out of copyright, those in the Books Library Project will be of benefit to students and scholars alike.

A Google Book Search, on the publisher's name (e.g., inpublisher:"Hudson Hills") and limiting the search to Limited Preview and full view books, will indicate that the publisher is participating in the Google Books Partner Program offering either Limited Previews or full book views.

Books with Limited Preview or Full Views features are fully digitized. Google Books provides a keyword search box in the pages describing individual books. Keyword search results show pages in the books containing the keywords. For Limited Preview books, not all keyword search results may be shown.

Art Museums

Some American art museums are prolific publishers of books. For instance a March 24, 2008 publisher search in Google Books for Chazen Museum of Art yielded 190 titles with almost all of the books featuring "Limited Preview." Chazen Museum of Art is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin. A small sample survey conducted in March, 2008 -- using Google Books as a tool -- of several museums' activity in allowing the contents of their exhibition catalogues to be accessed online revealed that few museums have yet entered into arrangements with Google Books for online retrieval of book contents.

Commercial Publishers

Commercial publishers such as Abbeville Press, Harry N. Abrams and Hudson Hills Press publish many art books. In March 2008 TFAO found in the Abbeville Press web site 26 books with partially digitized contents excerpts including prefaces, prologues, introductions, chapters, table of contents and other excerpts. Here is an Abbeville book with the Introduction available online:

Southwestern Indian Jewelry, By Dexter Cirillo. Photographs by Stephen Northup, Michael Monteaux. Contributor Steven Northup, Michael Monteaux. Published 1992 by Abbeville Press. Abbeville says: "Spectacular photographs of the breathtaking beautiful objects and sensitive portraits of the artists combine with an insightful, informative text to capture the spirit of this work and the vital cultures from which it springs. This ground-breaking volume opens by surveying the vividly colored necklaces, earrings, and pins made in shell and stone from prehistoric times to the present, particularly in the Santo Domingo and Zuni pueblos. The focus then shifts to the much-admired and avidly collected work in silver -- often set with turquoise and other stones -- by Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni artists. The book culminates in an exploration of striking contemporary work in which many artists have adapted traditional approaches to create original designs. A collector's guide offers invaluable advice as well as an illustrated glossary of materials, techniques, objects, and designs. A nationwide directory of sources concludes the book." (right: front cover, Southwestern Indian Jewelry. Photo courtesy Google Books) Note: the Introduction to this book may be read at the Abbeville Press web site.

Click here for a list of Abbeville Press titles.

A May 1, 2008 Google Book Search check for Hudson Hill Press on the publisher's name (e.g., inpublisher:"Hudson Hills") and limiting the search to Limited Preview and full view books indicated 557 titles, many of which relate to American representational art.

University Presses

TFAO has conducted inquiries with university presses noted for publication of art exhibition catalogues. Web searches indicate that several presses have entered into arrangements with Amazon and/or Google or are close to decisions on digitization participation. Examples of university presses that have published American art books include those from these institutions:

Columbia University (Google partner)

Fordham University Press (Google partner)

Harvard University (Google partner)

Oxford University (Google partner)

Penn State (Google partner)

Princeton University (Google partner)

University of Arizona

University of California (Google partner)

University of Georgia (Google partner)

University of Illinois (Google partner)

University of New Mexico

University of North Carolina (Google partner)

University of South Carolina (Google partner)

University of Pennsylvania (Google partner)

University of Texas (Google partner)

University of Washington

Yale University (Google partner)

When contacted in 2004, one large university press in the Western US had submitted about 1/2 of its titles with Amazon and Google. At that time the press has restricted digitization to text only and is studying rights and reproduction issues relating to images. A representative of the press explained that when books are sold online the authors still receive a share of proceeds in the form of royalties, forming an incentive for collaboration with the press. Copyright holders of images in books usually do not have royalty arrangements and therefore have less alignment of interests with publishers for digitization.

TFAO believes that university presses have a high propensity to cooperate with search engines and online books sales organizations in placing their books online for free retrieval of text in some manner.

A Research Bonanza

The online content from sources such as covered above will be a boon to students and life long learners when conducting research.

During 2008 TFAO is contacting leading American museums to learn of their plans to either directly digitize scholarly material owned in their exhibition catalogues or have commercial services such as Amazon and Google digitize for them. TFAO will track the progress of selected major presses in digitizing their titles. A prior survey was conducted in 2004.

Michael Lesk, a professor at Rutgers University, provides related insight into consumer purchasing behavior. He says: "The National Academy Press has, for a few years, been putting all their new books on the Web for free access, and providing the complete text of each book. To the surprise of many, the result has been an increase in their print sales. Similarly the Brookings Institute has put 100 of its books online free, and the paper sales of those books have doubled. This result is perhaps similar to the experience of record companies, which found years ago that having their records played free on the radio increased disk sales."

Nonprofit digitizing initiatives

For information on nonprofit digitizing initiatives please see Nonprofit digitizing initiatives

rev. 3/25/08

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The eBook future

Related Non-Profit Organizations

Methods and Costs

Notes

Individual pages in this study will be amended as TFAO adds content, corrects errors and reorganizes sections for improved readability. Refreshing or reloading pages enables readers to view the latest updates.Links to sources of information outside of our web site are provided only as referrals for your further consideration. Please use due diligence in judging the quality of information contained in these and all other Web sites and in employing referenced consultants or vendors. Information from linked sources may be inaccurate or out of date. Traditional Fine Arta Organization, Inc neither recommends or endorses these referenced organizations. Although Traditional Fine Art Organization, Inc. includes links to other web sites, it takes no responsibility for the content or information contained on those other sites, nor exerts any editorial or other control over those other sites. For more information on evaluating web pages see Traditional Fine Arts Organization, Inc.'s General Resources section in Online Resources for Collectors and Students of Art History.