When MP3s first came on the scene, one of the first things we geeks did was to digitize our CDs so that we could have our music stored on our computers. Now that we’re beginning to move books into the digital age, we have the equivalent of the iTunes store for books via sites like Amazon and Google Books, but we’re yet to have the other major component: the ability to import our books into our computers.
TechCrunch has a post exposing Google Book’s feature to import a book into your library by scanning a bar code, which at first I thought was awesome. But then I learned that this is the same as adding a book to your library through any other means, ie you still only get the limited preview, just as you would if you imported the book by typing in the ISBN number on the back. This is a ridiculous barrier to the rate at which our centuries worth of publishing material can step into the digital age. If one owns a book and scans the barcode with an actual scanner, why should he not have access to the whole thing?
The obvious barrier is that publishers don’t want people just going to libraries or bookstores and just scanning every book they find. But the solution to this problem is simple: have stores and libraries put something over the barcode. In the case of a book actually purchased, the store would remove the blocker on payment. Sure, it’d be annoying, but how nice would it be if you could simply search through the text of those dense college books, or if you could simply have all of your textbooks stored on your laptop?
