By Valentina Romei
Published: September 19 2009 00:22 | Last updated: September 19 2009 00:22
The Google Books Search tool allows users to search Google’s collection of online books; when the project is completed it could give access to 20m out-of-print titles in US libraries alone. Such mass digitalisation would radically change access to information, and the project continues despite several copyright-related lawsuits against Google around the world.
Use of Google Books, tracked by comScore, rose by 20 per cent from June 2008 to June 2009, reaching almost 28m monthly unique visitors worldwide. The largest number of visitors is from Europe, with about 8.6m connections to the site, followed by North America and Latin America.
The preponderance of American libraries participating in the project has contributed to Google Books’ popularity among Latin American internet users; American libraries stock mainly English- and Spanish-language books.
About 6 per cent of internet users in Latin America used Google Books last year; in the US it was 4 per cent. Countries with smaller internet populations concentrated among the more highly educated tend to appear near the top of the table. China, only 0.1 per cent of whose vast army of internet users visited the site, is bottom.
Sunday 20 September 2009
The Information: Google Bookworms
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