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