CA-HISTORY-L Archives

From: carolyn <>
Subject: GOOGLE TO SCAN MILLIONS OF BOOKS!
Date: Tue, 21 Dec 2004 13:40:19 -0800

Good News........................

This is going to really be a tremendous asset to online researchers. In the not to distant future, those of us who are volunteer transcribes will not have to be working so hard to get those public domain histories, etc. online for your *free* use!

Carolyn
TAG Team Member
http://www.sfgenealogy.com/tag/






From another list..............

2. GOOGLE LAUNCHES BOOK DIGITIZATION PROJECT
On 14 December 2004, five prestigious university and public libraries
announced their intention to join with Google Inc. to digitize millions of
books and make portions (and in some cases where works are not in the
public domain), all of them searchable without cost to users, thus
providing researchers with an unprecedented information finding tool. The
joint effort of Harvard and Stanford universities, the University of
Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Oxford, and the New York Public
Library may well soon turn Google into the single largest holder of
digitized published material. But the collaboration is also likely to
rekindle a long-standing debate over copyright and fair use over the
Internet.

Google plans to begin by scanning works that are in the public
domain. Some publishers, however, worry that the effort will depress
hard-copy sales of books in what already is a tough market. Some even
predict the demise of the book as it is known today. Many librarians and
scholars, however, maintain the online access will enhance public access to
books provide a boon to researchers, and benefit anyone who does not have
access to a high-quality collection. According to Duane E. Webster,
Executive Director of the Association of Research Libraries, "This is a
very important move forward for the public's ability to access scholarly
information....This enrichment of resources will entice even more users to
those libraries that see themselves as learning commons."

Since only excerpts of copyrighted materials will be available online for
more recent works, Google officials and librarians hope that the
information will be sufficient to let researchers determine whether they
want to check out or purchase books. Google will make its money by
including links to online booksellers and local libraries where the results
of search results can be borrowed or purchased.

Most of the libraries that have agreed to work with Google have done so
only on a pilot project basis. Harvard University, for example, has agreed
to let Google scan only 40,000 books during the pilot phase of the project.
Yet the number of volumes that could be eventually be scanned is
astounding: Harvard alone holds some 15 million volumes.

The project is expected to take years to complete.

NATIONAL COALITION FOR HISTORY (NCH)
Website at http://www2.h-net.msu.edu/~nch

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• GOOGLE TO SCAN MILLIONS OF BOOKS! by carolyn <>