MBooks (Google/UM parternship) now online

The first results from Google’s parternship with the UM library system are now online. Scanned results show up on Mirlyn as electronic resources, and a click on the record gives two links: one for Michigan’s implementation (example) and one for Google’s (example). Google’s, of course, uses the Google Books interface we’re all familiar with; I’m happy to report, though, that UM’s is very usable itself.

Below, the email I received announcing the news, and including a bit more information:

“As of this morning, the University Library version of materials scanned through our partnership with Google has been released to the public. Both the MBook and Google versions are directly accessible from the records found in Mirlyn for particular books and journals.As you may know, works clearly in the public domain (that is, not or no longer copyright restricted) are fully accessible, while works still under copyright, or with rights remaining to be determined, are viewable either as snippets (Google, based on the first 3 occurrences of search terms in the book), or as a complete index to all occurrences of search terms (MBooks). The initial definition of “public domain” [*****] for this project has been conservative, and includes materials published before 1923 (US) or before 1909 (other countries). Over time, we can
expect restrictions on access to many more materials to be lifted.

The two different interfaces do differ in a variety of other ways. Printing from MBooks, for example, must currently be done one page at a time (We recommend switching to the pdf view), while Google is making entire works available for printing or download. I find that the MBooks version is particularly helpful when looking for a known item, or when trying to locate a particular journal volume.

I am not sure how many volumes are available in this initial release, but it is very large, and growing rapidly. A sample Mirlyn advanced search on keyword=history, format=electronic and dates of publication=1900-1910 just returned 1,480 titles — many of which are MBooks titles.

Both versions provide links on each page to send in comments. Please help us improve our electronic holdings by making use of the comment links, or contacting me directly (please see below).

Janet Crayne, Head
Slavic and East European Division
University of Michigan Library
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1205
(734) 936-2348 (phone)
(734) 763-6743 (fax)
jcrayne@umich.edu”