Google, the biggest company in the world, started to cooperate with several famous libraries in 2002 in order to be able to scan their books; their goal was to publish them as an online version so that every single person who has access to a computer would be able to search for information in a short time. One can ask oneself if it might be an invention which offers, especially university students, an easier life.

A lot of people who heard about the first publications of books on the internet were really fascinated and ever since have been using it as a source to write papers or for mere interest. Still, there are some disadvantages which should be considered when talking about the topic. The most disturbing one is probably the fact that the process of scanning the books is a long haul; by the time all the books are scanned, there are already newer versions on the market. Moreover, the copyright issue seems to play an important role. It is used so that publishing companies as well as authors have the possibility of making money with their books. Still, the user of Google’s new tool is able to search through all of the books, no matter if they are copyrighted or not. If the latter is the case, people are not able to read the whole book on the internet; nevertheless, they can search for certain passages by entering the word or term they are looking for. Another negative aspect about the online books is the fact that some pages are not available and consequently, people might have to purchase the book. Furthermore, some users dislike the fact about not having their own copy in front of themselves in which they can tag papers, take notes and / or underline certain passages.

Even though there seem to be some striking arguments against the new way of publishing books, many people definitely advocate Google’s new offer. There are actually three points which might not come to ones mind at first, but if you deeply consider the positive aspects, you will eventually take them into account. Firstly, the saving of paper is an important argument in regard to the environmentalists. By publishing books online instead of printing thousands of copies for the libraries worldwide, the wastage of paper is reduced and therefore contributes positively to the natural environment. Secondly, the process of research becomes much more comfortable; people do not have to leave their homes in order to go to the library and moreover, they do not have to organize their work according to the opening hours of the institution. Once talking about the libraries, the third aspect which is of great importance is the fact that most of the times there is only a limited number of copies available. If there is a whole class dealing with the short stories of Raymond Carver, for example, everybody rushes to the library in order to get as much information as possible. The first two, or maybe three, people are lucky, but everybody who arrives a few minutes later is not able to grasp any book because somebody else has already borrowed it.
The aspects considered above might not seem plausible for everyone, but others might agree that it is a great advantage to have a very fast and consistent access to most of the books. While working, for example, at a paper at home, you might recognize that some important information is missing; but, that is not a problem with Google books. You just need to turn on your computer and then you can directly search for the passages you are looking for without having to read whole parts of the book in order to find the right page. The most striking aspect though is the fact that a piece of writing cannot be destroyed. In history we have seen that the damage of an important library or archive can abolish thousands of valuable books whose loss has a lot of negative consequences. Of course, printed versions cannot be replaced by a scanned document on the internet, but nevertheless, it is an advantage to have a copy; thus, the content of a book can never be completely destroyed.

To sum it up, the majority of the students think that it is a great advantage to use Google’s online library in order to do some research. Personally, I do not think that it will completely abolish books; I would not use the internet service to look for a novel or any other book I just read for pleasure for example. Thus, it can be said that Google books is a great supporting tool when one has a limitation of time and / or access.

Source: Andinia.com

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Henry Morton Stanley was one of those characters that discover their true vocation in the middle of their lives; from journalism he went wholeheartedly into exploration just because of an assignment given to him by his boss.

Mr. Morton Stanley was a journalist of the New York Herald when his boss summoned him to his office and gave him an unusual assignment: Find Dr. David Livingstone in Africa and publish the news. The journalist had then no experience whatsoever related to exploration or any other outdoor activity, for that matter, and the British missionary had been missing for months. But he managed to put up an expedition and make a spectacular trek thorough uncharted terrain until he found Dr. Livingstone in Ujiji, uttering the famous words: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume..."

Some historians now challenge the way in which the meeting allegedly took place and even say that it didn't happened in Ujiji, but the truth is that Mr. Morton Stanley then went on to become one of the major figures of the European conquest of Africa during the last part of the nineteenth century, and led some of the most spectacular, ambitious and bloody expeditions of the era.

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The city of Timbuktu was for many centuries a no-go for Western travellers and explorers.

Reality proved that things were not exactly as they thought and no apparent riches were to be found there when Europeans finally made it to the legendary city located in today's Mali. But the ostensible poverty of life there once more, proved not to be the real thing there when the existence of the ancient Timbuktu library was revealed a few years ago, closing a circle of myths and contrastable history.It is worth to know a little more about the lives of those pioneers that in some cases, paid the ultimate price for their curiosity.

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