and this blog is a google product

http://www.googlebooksettlement.com

I opted out for my book and my press

on the one hand, there is some OLD research which indicated that online publication did not really negatively impact print copy sales of a title

on the other hand, there is my current practice, which is to say that WITH VERY STRANGE LIMITS AND CAVEATS google books is making the public domain books I work with accessible, so much so that not being affiliated with a university LIBRARY is not quite so punishing as formerly, and even some exerpts of articles and critical works are enough for me to get the leads (if not citations) I need, especially now that the LAPL is not purchasing new poetry or critical works at the pace it did (and frankly needs to do if it is to remain the great library it briefly was)

oddly, the public domain works which are not available are those which ARE being reissued by presses, one sees some "not really very corporate" corporate interference here (I mean by the presses)

what this is doing is putting some really odd attention on some of the worst writing by women pre-1922, and not some of the best

additionally, because the items are available in image, not text, they are not really very usable, and google books cannot replace internet archive/gutenberg or other text versions, or one needs to purchase adobe acrobat professional, which is costly

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