Earlier today, Philipp Lenssen over on Google Blogoscoped (one of the very best Google Blogs) posted a note about someone discovering “human hands” on scans of pages of books being digitized by Google as part of their Google Library Program. Yes, most likely a beta issue but it’s worth being on the lookout for.*

Last week, another story made the rounds on a library listserv, LIBREF, we believe. In this case the book was a compilation of plays by William Shakespeare and included some scanned fingers and other “stuff.” Instead of reposting some examples here, here’s a direct link to some examples that we contributed to GB late Wednesday.

*As we all know (but often forget) Google is not the first and not the only ones to be doing book digitization. Here’s just one example.

+ This post has details (U of T has been scanning books for years). You’ll also find a link to a story about an actual human “scanner” and a cool video of a scanning machine that operates in both manual and auto modes. The Univ of Toronto is contributior to the Open Content Alliance.

+ A recent article about U of Toronto Scanning: Building an Online Library, One Volume at a Time (via WSJ, free)

+ A video of Book Scanning Robot at the University of Toronto in action.

See Also: Philipp Lenssen is also the author of 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google. The full text (in PDF) is available here. Worthy of your attention. Few, very few, know more about G that P.L. Hopefully, he’ll write other books about other engines. (-:

See Also: Since it appears that Lenssen thinks that sleep is overrated or he’s just the most productive person on Earth, Philipp is also the creator and developer of the wonderful Games for the Brain site. Invigorating summer fun (or winter fun for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere.

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