Google Books Facts for Kids

Google Books is a cool website created by Google. It lets you search through and read parts of millions of books and magazines that have been scanned into computers. Imagine a giant digital library where you can find almost any book!

What is Google Books?
- How Books Are Scanned
- A Brief History
Working with Publishers
- Disagreements About Books
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What is Google Books?

Google Books is like a huge online library where you can discover books. It helps you find books by searching for words inside them. When you search, you might see snippets (small parts) of books, or sometimes even the whole book if it's very old or the publisher agrees.

How Books Are Scanned

To get books onto Google Books, they are scanned page by page. After scanning, a special computer program called optical character recognition (OCR) reads the images of the pages. This program turns the pictures of words into actual text that computers can understand. This is how Google makes the words inside the books searchable.

A Brief History

The idea for Google Books started a long time ago. It was first announced and launched in 2004. Back then, it was known by different names, like Google Print and Google Book Search. The goal was always to make books more accessible to everyone around the world.

Working with Publishers

Google works with many publishers and authors to include their books. For newer books, you often see just a few pages or a preview. This is because the books are still protected by copyright laws. Copyright means that the person who created the book (the author or publisher) owns the rights to it.

Disagreements About Books

Sometimes, there have been disagreements about scanning books. In 2005, some book publishers felt that Google was scanning books without getting their full permission first. Google believed that scanning parts of books to help people find them was fair. This means they thought it was okay to use the books in a limited way to help people discover new things. These discussions have happened in different countries, showing how important it is to respect who owns the rights to creative works.