Google Books vs Open Library: The Light Beer vs Dark Beer of the online free book reading debate. (At least click on the links, I think they’re amusing)

That’s like comparing apples and some fruit nobody’s ever heard of.” – Maeby Fünke

Well, we’ve all heard of Google Books, at least, it’s been mentioned in class. From the very start, a comparison of Google Books and Open Library shows two rather distinct websites. Google Books (GB) seems to be more user friendly, providing links to genres for both fiction and non, as well as a “random subject” section on the left side of the home page; also colorful, thumbnail links to featured publications. Open Library’s (OL) home page is a much more muted provided few clues as to what it’s all about. It does provide along the bottom, three columns under three headings: “Find Books”, “Build the Library”, and “Develope the Site”. “Build the Library” has a link under it that says “About the Project”, we’ll check that out later. GB does a little less to inform the visitor what they’re all about, providing a link at the veeeeery bottom of the page, and thus requiring much scrolling, that says “About Google Books Beta”. So, assuming, we know what the purpose of GB and OL is, we will continue the comparison…

Wait, we don’t know what they are? Alright. According to the “About Us” page on OL, “Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive, and is funded in part by a grant from the California State Library. We have a small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, but we can’t do it alone! This is an Open project – the software is open, the data is open, the documentation is open, and the site is open.” So this small team of fantastic programmers who have accomplished a lot, have built a database with a wiki interface and you can search through the text of over 1 million scanned books. Remember though, they can’t do it alone. GB’s ‘about’ page is a little more succinct, with their main features in bold: “Search”, “Browse books online”, “Learn more — fast”, “Buy the book … or borrow it from the library”, and finally, answering a question that is undoubtedly on everyone’s mind “Where do the books come from?” Well, dear reader, the books come from Partner Program, which allows authors and publishers to their books out there onto the internet, for free by adding them to the GB world. Also the books in GB come from the Library Project, in which Google is “Working with several major libraries to include their collections in Google Books”. Whew.

“Now what about the books themselves?” You may ask. I took the liberty of comparing the same book on both sites to see which site was better for reading books for free without the hassle of going to a real life library. Ick. Well, searching for Harry Potter didn’t exactly yield a free, digitized copy of the book, so I had to go a little older. No, older than that. Ooooooolder. That’s it. Last of the Mohicans! A sure-fire public domain masterpiece that is wholly unreadable, just like everything else he wrote. I’m from Cooperstown, I’m allowed to say that. Also, have you ever tried actually reading some of his stuff? Awful! Let’s go with Mohicans anyway, just ignore what I say and think about the awesomeness of Daniel Day-Lewis.

After searching the title on GB, I click on the first link and am sent immediately to an online copy of the book. There it is, a very simple scanned version, in all of its stultifyingly boring glory. You can scroll down to go to the next page, allowing for easy navigation. Don’t fret, here you go. Now OL is a different story. Well it’s still Last of the Mohicans, but the path to get there is a little different. After clicking on the first link in the search results page, I am sent to an information page, not what I want if I’m in a hurry to be bored to death by the JFC. After a little hunting on the page, I see the “Read Online” button and click on it. And we’re here. An interesting way to show the book. The sensitivity of the scanner may have been set a little high as you can see through the paper and the text on the next page which makes for bad reading. Instead of scrolling you click on a turn-the-page button in the upper right hand corner. This is fine, I guess. I think I prefer the scroll option though. GB also loads the pages of the books faster, so it’s got that going for it, which is nice.

So who wins? I think I’ll go with the mega-group here and choose Google Books. Sorry guys. Here’s a little something to keep you all going this weekend, I’m off to work on my costume.

Copywrong

So, I think I am having a little trouble with the difference between properly citing my sources and copyright infringement. A lot of the content on my website will be scholarly work of my own, I will nonetheless still have sources, which will be properly cited. If my primary source of information is a couple of books on the jail, do I need to contact the authors and ask permission to cite their work? This is something we probably ought to cover in class.

Anyway, I think the primary copyright issues will be gaining permission to use photos. Since Kilmainham Gaol owns the rights to many photos related to its history, I don’t believe that this will be a problem.

PS Lynn, GREAT cartoon on twitter. I loved it.

Ideas anyone?

Any thoughts as to how I can distance my project on Kilmainham Gaol away from a “brochure-ware” project? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

Take That Internet!

Abstract

“Kilmainham Gaol: Confinement Of Independence” will look at the history of the most infamous penitentiary in Irish history. From its construction in 1796 until its decommission as a penal institution in 1924 the titular institution played host to virtually every significant member of the Irish independence movement. The project will serve as the official website of Kilmainham Gaol, which today is a museum, art gallery, and one of Dublin’s leading tourist attractions.

Why is this project needed?

A cursory Google search yields no results for an official website of the Kilmainham Gaol, which therefore makes this project a vital necessity for anyone visiting the Dublin area. Also, the story of Kilmainham Gaol is an important one, the Irish independence movement is not widely known in America. It is understood by many that there is a tradition of animosity among the Irish people toward the British government, and many adults today remember acts of terrorism perpetrated by Irish organizations in Northern Ireland and London, but the details of this strained relationship goes untold in a land where there are more than thirty six million people of Irish descent. The story is one of a nationalist movement that many Americans can relate to, comparing the acts of the founding fathers of the United States to those of men like Robert Emmet, Charles Stewart Parnell, and Eamon de Valera. By putting this information online, people from all over the world can learn about what happened at Kilmainham Gaol.

Main Features

As well as providing basic visitor services information that would be needed to visit Kilmainham in Dublin, the website will also provide historical content in the form of an online exhibition, tracing the history of the building from its origins to its present day function as a museum. This exhibit will be divided into three sections. The first will focus on the building itself; the design, construction and layout, including the deplorable conditions in which the prisoners (including women and children) were kept. The second section will concentrate on the narratives of prominent prisoners Robert Emmet, Thomas Francis Meagher, Charles Stewart Parnell, and the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising, especially Padraig Pearse, Joseph Plunkett, Constance Markiewicz, and Eamon de Valera. The third section will show the life of the building after ceased to be used as a jail; its renovation, the founding of a museum, as well as its popular use as a film location.

Audience

The target audience for this exhibit will naturally be everyone, as stated above, specifically people in the Dublin area who wish to visit the Gaol itself. Visiting the website of a museum before going adds to the overall experience and can help the visitor grasp a lot more than he or she maybe would have otherwise. The content at times may be slightly controversial, as it includes executions, so parental guidance is suggested. Anyone interested in learning about an independence movement in the twentieth century will find “Kilmainham Gaol: Confinement Of Independence” fascinating.

Technology

The main emphasis of this website will be to serve the museum itself in the best way possible. A Google map of Dublin immediately surrounding Kilmainham will be provided as well as links to other attractions in Dublin related to the Gaol. Audio files of speeches given at the trials of the incarcerated, the so called “speech from the dock” was a point of honor for any person that found themselves facing a British judge will be posted for download. Also 360 degree tours of several important spaces of the building will be available. These spaces include a typical jail cell in which low-profile prisoners were kept, the East Wing or “Victorian” Wing of the Gaol, and the courtyard where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising were executed.

User Contributed/Interactive Elements

There will be a comment section, where visitors can leave notes, memories, and other comments. This space will have to be closely monitored, as the subject matter is still somewhat controversial.