Scribd is like YouTube for text

Scribd.

So, what if you want a document online for everybody, rather than a picture or video?  What if you want to publish a whole online magazine, or just a story/novel/opinion/whatever?  Tutorials, fiction, cultural pieces… anything you write.

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Scribd and blogging platforms like Blogger, WordPress, and Tumblr are all tools that enable you to publish yourself on the web. Scribd occupies the space between blogging and traditional publishing, enabling anybody to publish formatted, professional-looking content without expensive software or hassle.

Documents published on Scribd aren’t confined by the formatting limits and peculiarities of HTML-based platforms. PDF documents uploaded to Scribd retain their fonts, graphics, and formatting regardless of the reader’s particular computer or browser. Scribd documents compliment your blog by enabling you to embed multi-page formatted documents with a simple bit of code.

Here are a few things to consider when deciding whether to use Scribd or a blog:

• Each document on Scribd is a stand-alone publication.
• There is no pressure to post multiple documents on Scribd. Unlike a blog, you can post one piece of writing and then never post anything again.
• With Scribd, there’s no time pressure. You can publish something you wrote yesterday, or ten years ago!
• Unlike a blog, Scribd allows you to display richly formatted Word or PDF documents”

Google for books? The Google Book Search Library Project

So, you’ve heard that some big libraries are putting ALL their books on Google.

Sorry, that’s not exactly the entire story. The first priority is to digitize the books that are old enough to be out of copyright. Those published before about 1923 and not renewed since, or any that have been released to the public domain since that time, such as government and public documents, can appear in full text.

Other materials still under copyright will be searchable but only display a few lines.

Check on Google Book Search Library Project for all the facts.

Google provides some text for books online, depending on the copyright and what the publisher allows.

• Just type Books about followed by the title or subject.
• At the top of the results, you should see links labeled Book Results. Click on the title or subject.
• Select a book from the list, if you asked for a subject.
• On the right sidebar beside the book, one of the choices will be Find this book in a library. Click on that.
• Enter your location information, such as your zip code, and search.
• Google will find the nearest libraries with this book.

Note: all the libraries must members of the international library database called OCLC.  Other libraries may hold the title but not be listed for that reason.