University of Chicago law professor Randy Picker recounts some experiences with Google Book Search. He talks about looking for The Wealth of Nations.
Of course, the publication of Smith’s work was the second great event of 1776 (or was it the first?), so it would be surprising if the work remained subject to copyright. And indeed, if you flip over to the second page of the search results, we find an 1869 edition of The Wealth of Nations listed as in the public domain and we have full, unfettered access to that book. For now, GBS users will have to anticipate this possibility, but Google might think about linking over from restricted works to unrestricted versions of the work. [The University of Chicago Law School Faculty Blog: Working with Google Book Search (and Making it Better)]
Another case where relating manifestations of a work would be useful. Examples where FRBR would be useful crop up everywhere!
And here is a find in a library page for the 1869 edition in question.
One of the issues that colleagues at OCLC and RLG are working on is making sure that in due course the digitized versions emerging from the Google and OCA digitization initiatives are recorded in our existing bibliographic apparatus.
Link via Peter Brantley.
