Reply #78: As someone who uses Google books on a regular basis..

[girl gone mad]

let me tell you it is nowhere near ready for prime time and it definitely won't be replacing actual libraries any time soon.

The bottom line is that Google has done a piss poor job indexing and the ownership issues involved pose a real long term danger. Having a single private corporation monopolize access to information is just a bad idea. You would think people on a progressive message board could figure that one out.

Art and photography books, textbooks and technical manuals will not find a mass market in the digital format anytime soon, particularly as smaller netbooks and handheld devices begin to dominate computer sales. Seeing a collection from the Louvre on a 5" by 7" screen won't cut it. Then you have the question of ownership, as Kindle users recently learned. When you buy a book, you own it. You can resell it, share it or give it away. This is the same reason that CDs are still so enormously popular despite the widespread adoption of MP3s. Until the legal and copyright issues are worked out in a manner more favorable to the consumer, old media isn't going away.