Millions of hard-to-find books from five major libraries will soon
be a lot easier to access: Google has made plans to scan and digitize
them, making the books available on their widely used Internet search
engine.
Google's latest endeavor is a large step beyond previous attempts
to scan books so they can be read online (Google, Amazon.com and
other smaller sites have offered glimpses of books and libraries
online before). What makes this initiative so different is the sheer
breadth of material that Google plans to cover.
Five libraries will be involved in the
project in various stages:
- New York public library: Allowing Google a small portion
of books no longer covered by copyright.
- Harvard University library: Is contributing a limited
40,000 volumes to guage how well the process works.
- Stanford University library: Will submit its entire collection
to Google's scanners.
- Michigan University library: Will also submit its entire
collection.
- Oxford University library: Contributing all its books
published before 1901
To get an idea of just how large a project Google is taking on,
consider that Michigan's library alone contains 7 million volumes,
which is about 132 miles of books, while Harvard's library
contains 15 million. The Michigan job is expected to take six years.
Although some in the field worry that this trend could signal the
end of libraries, others are excited at the prospect of putting
valuable information that was once limited in its use at the fingertips
of all Internet users. The project will also create a digital record
for material that was created before computers, thereby preserving
it in a way that could not have been done in the past.
Google users will only be able to view bibliographies and other
brief excerpts from the copyrighted books scanned from the libraries,
while works no longer covered by copyrights will be completely available
to the online public.
USA
Today December 14, 2004
New
York Times December 14, 2004
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