There are some deep archives of scholarly material in Old Norse studies and archaeology being made available for free in PDF format. Goody the first: the Viking Society for Northern Research is making nearly its entire publishing archive, from 1895 until the present, available for free. For more info, see their web publications page.

Goody the second: the Scandinavian archaeological journal Fornvännen has made its entire journal from 1906-2005 available in PDF as well.  There is a free-text search facility, and while most of the articles are in Swedish, Danish or Norwegian, there are numerous English abstracts as well as entire papers in English.

The third issue cannot really be called a goody since it involves protracted litigation, but Google has reached a settlement (pending court approval) with book authors and publishers over its large-scale book scanning program. When I first read James Gleick’s rather breezy Op-Ed piece in the New York Times, my heart leapt: all of those inaccessible out-of-print scholarly books finally made available to us readers, standing outside the academy with our noses pressed against the glass!

By now the company has digitized at least seven million titles. Many are old enough to be in the public domain — no issue there — and many are new enough to be available in bookstores, but the vast majority, four million to five million, are books that had fallen into a kind of limbo: protected by copyright but out of print. Their publishers had given up on them. They existed at libraries and used booksellers but otherwise had left the playing field.

As a way through the impasse, the authors persuaded Google to do more than just scan the books for purposes of searching, but go further, by bringing them back to commercial life. Under the agreement these millions of out-of-print books return from limbo. Any money made from advertising or licensing fees will go partly to Google and mostly to the rights-holders. The agreement is nonexclusive: If competitors to Google want to get into the business, they can.

This means a new beginning — a vast trove of books restored to the marketplace.

This access to copyrighted books would be provided through Google’s so-called Public Access Service, and while it may prove to be a great leap forward, it could be cumbersome and will involve (as yet undetermined) fees for individuals. After reading the FAQ at the Association of American Publishers’ website, I am guardedly optimistic.

2. If approved by the court, what will the settlement offer?

If approved, the settlement would provide:

  • More Access to Out-of-Print Books — Generating greater exposure for millions of in-copyright works, including hard-to-find out-of-print books, by enabling readers in the U.S. to search these works and preview them online;
  • Additional Ways to Purchase Copyrighted Books — Building off publishers’ and authors’ current efforts and further expanding the electronic market for copyrighted books in the U.S., by offering users the ability to purchase online access to many in-copyright books;
  • Institutional Subscriptions to Millions of Books Online — Offering a means for U.S. colleges, universities and other organizations to obtain subscriptions for online access to collections from some of the world’s most renowned libraries;
  • Free Access From U.S. Libraries — Providing free, full-text, online viewing of millions of out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries; and
  • Compensation to Authors and Publishers and Control Over Access to Their Works — Distributing payments earned from online access provided by Google and, prospectively, from similar programs that may be established by other providers, through a newly created independent, not-for-profit Book Rights Registry.  The Book Rights Registry will locate rightsholders, collect and maintain accurate rightsholder information, and provide a way for rightsholders to request inclusion in or exclusion from the project.

3. In what new ways will this agreement enable users to access books?

The agreement significantly expands access to millions of in-copyright books through Google Book Search.

Specifically, readers will be able to access books through:

  • Preview — Allows users to freely preview a limited number of pages of in-copyright works to help users decide if the book is right for them to buy. Generally, out-of-print books will be available for preview, and in-print books will not unless the rightsholder decides to activate previews through their participation in this settlement or through the Book Search Partner Program.
  • Consumer Purchase — Offers individual users the ability to purchase access to view an entire in-copyright book online.  The rightsholder may set the price or allow the price to be set by a Google algorithm.
  • Institutional Subscription — For academic, corporate, and government organizations.  Gives members of the institution full access to in-copyright, out-of-print books.
  • Free Public Library Access — Authorizes free, full-text, online viewing of in-copyright, out-of-print books at designated computers in U.S. public and university libraries at no charge to the library or the reader, with added revenues to the rightsholders through per page printing fees.
  • Future Services — The agreement allows for other services and uses, such as Print-On-Demand, Consumer Subscription and others, to be agreed in the future.

I hope that the court will approve the settlement, and that they can move forward with this project.