Though the primary players involved in the Google's book scanning debate have come to a settlement, all groups be affected by the decision are still trying to understand what it will mean.

Librarians, for instance, worry that Google — the only player in the book-indexing game since Microsoft stepped out — can charge them whatever it wishes for subscriptions to the book database.

Students and faculty at universities subscribed to the database will have access to the entire contents of a book for free; individual users will have to buy it — with at least half of the books "retailing" for $5.99 or less, the New York Times reports.

And while both authors and publishers agreed to disagree with Google about whether their copyrights were being violated, they now have set a rate for revenue sharing. Google will take 37% of the revenue generated through ad sales on preview pages, subscription fees, and the consumer digital access sales, leaving 63% for other parties involved.

For the average author, the proceeds will not be significant, said Richard Sarnoff, chairman of the Association of American Publishers and president of the digital media investments group at Bertelsmann, which owns Random House.

It may be more of a cultural victory than a financial one, as out-of-print books grow more accessible to readers as a result of the deal. About five million of the seven million books Google has scanned so far have been out of commercial production for years.

So though the details in the 303-page settlement document have not been scrutinized — and its repercussions remain murky — most are charmed by the prospect of being able to tap the "trove of information" left dormant on the dusty shelves of libraries and bookstores.

Google recently made Book Search results site-embeddable. And throughout 2008 it continued to expand and improve upon archives of major magazines and newspapers.