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Big news this morning in Google's long-discussed desire to undertake
mass digitization of academic library holdings.   The ambitions here -
on both library and search engine sides - are to transform digital
access to our library holdings and to do it on a scale hitherto unseen.
Quite remarkable - and very much a project that combines a cluster of
issues that are central to the work of the DLF, with four of the five
early partners with Google being DLF members (Oxford being the fifth). 
 
The following excerpt is from the Miami Herald story - links to the full
text (from AP) and to a Search Engine Watch piece below:
 

Google to scan books from big libraries

 Michael Liedtke,  Associated Press


SAN FRANCISCO - Google Inc. is trying to establish an online reading
room for five major libraries by scanning stacks of hard-to-find books
into its widely used Internet search engine.  The ambitious initiative
announced late Monday gives Mountain View, Calif.-based Google the right
to index material from the New York public library as well as libraries
at four universities - Harvard, Stanford, Michigan and Oxford in
England.  The Michigan and Stanford libraries are the only two so far to
agree to submit all their material to Google's scanners.  The New York
library is allowing Google to include a small portion of its books no
longer covered by copyright while Harvard is confining its participation
to 40,000 volumes so it can gauge how well the process works. Oxford
wants Google to scan all its books originally published before 1901.
 
Miami Herald
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/10410515.htm?1c
 
See also Search Engine Watch
http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3447411
 
Best,
 
David
 
 
David Seaman
Executive Director,
Digital Library Federation
1755 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
tel: 202-939-4762; fax: 202-939-4765
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web: http://www.diglib.org/ <http://www.diglib.org/>