So I know that there are lots of problems with the Google book settlement. But yesterday I got to experience the power of digitized books firsthand and it was awesome to behold. My son had to do a project for school where he described five different professions from Colonial times. There were quite a few resources available on the web, but many of them lacked any kind of source attribution for their claims about what Colonial life was like. Now instead of going to the library, I pointed my son at http://books.google.com and it was amazing. For instance, one of the professions he was researching was “farmer.” Within minutes he found a book that had an incredibly well researched chapter about Colonial farming. Now here is the really cool part: the book was from 1916! I fully appreciate that the rights situation is a tricky one. But it would be a shame for humanity if this kind of access to knowledge would instead disappear behind paywalls and fractured into many different places. We have to find a solution that keeps open access available!
