Google has doubled the number of publishers signed up to its once-controversial book-search service ...
The Internet giant caused uproar among publishers and some libraries when it launched the project four years ago, with many in the establishment fearing Google planned to gain control of all the world's books and give them away for free online.
Since then, 20,000 publishers -- twice as many as a year ago -- have done deals to let Google scan the full text of their -- have done deals to let Google scan the full text of their books to let potential buyers to read snippets relating to their Internet searches.
Google also works with academic and reference libraries to scan out-of-copyright works -- and, controversially, some works still in copyright from U.S. libraries -- but has added only two library partners over the past year, bringing the total to 29. ...
[Google's Santiago de la Mora] confirmed that Bertelsmann's Random House, the world's largest non-factual publisher, had signed up. ...
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
