Reply #16: Suggest you Re-read Price's Article

[benny05]

E-brary is very expensive, over 2 times the cost of a print copy. Safari books cannot be purchased --you have to have a subscription. If you look at their sites, they are trying to market to libraries or corporations only; they are not for the typical consumer (retail). I'm sorry, but the article Price wrote was intended for librarians who purchase such products.

As far as looking inside Amazon's books in connection with google technology, a lot of times you cannot print what you see; you can only read the selected passages based on the keywords you put in.

Progressive Library online is a not an option at the moment as you have to consider the digital divide that still exists. Many still have dial-up and it would take forever to download pages or books; that's just the logistics. Otherwise, why Ebrary and Safari etc issues surround the legal downloading and cost has to do with general copyright laws (which are good things to help artists and writers), but also you can thank Clinton and Gore for the Digital Millienium Copyright Act to go through to help their Hollywood and publishing buddies. Licensing agreements are murder to negotiate for popular works and very scholarly works.

But in theory, it's an idea. I wish we could have a Progressive Library for free.