[bookshare-discuss] Fw: Google to scan library books
- From: "Louise" <lougou@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bookshare Volunteers" <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "Bookshare Discuss" <bookshare-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <ElectroBooks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 18:41:33 -0600
>
> Google to scan books from major libraries
> New York library, Harvard, Oxford among participants
>
> The Associated Press
>
> Updated: 11:58 p.m. ET Dec. 13, 2004
>
>
> 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.
>
> Scanning books so they can be read through computers isn't new. Both
Google
> and Amazon.com already have programs that offer online glimpses of new
> books while an assortment of other sites for several years have provide
> digital access to some material in libraries scattered around the country.
>
> But Google's latest commitment could have the biggest impact yet, given
the
> breadth of material that the company hopes to put into its search engine,
> which has become renowned for its processing speed, ease of use and
accuracy.
>
> 'This is the day the world changes'
> "It's a significant opportunity to bring our material to the rest of the
> world," said Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library. "It
> could solve an old problem: If people can't get to us, how can we get to
them?"
>
> Librarians are also excited about the prospect of creating a digital
record
> for the reams of valuable material written long before computers were
> conceived.
>
> "This is the day the world changes," said John Wilkin, a University of
> Michigan librarian working with Google. "It will be disruptive because
some
> people will worry that this is the beginning of the end of libraries. But
> this is something we have to do to revitalize the profession and make it
> more meaningful."
>
> The project gives Google's search engine another potential drawing card as
> it faces stiffening competition for Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.
> Attracting visitor traffic is crucial to Google's financial health because
> the company depends on revenue generated by people clicking on advertising
> links posted next to the main body of search results.
>
> Scanning the library books figures to be a daunting task, even for a
> cutting edge company such as Google, whose online index of 8 billion Web
> pages already has revolutionized the way people look for information.
>
>
> Work will take years
> Michigan's library alone contains 7 million of its library volumes - about
> 132 miles of books. Google hopes to get the job done at Michigan within
six
> years, Wilkin said.
>
> Harvard's library is even larger with 15 million volumes. Virtually all of
> that material will be off limits until Google shows it can scan the
> material without losing or damaging anything, said Harvard professor
Sidney
> Verba, who also is director of the university's library.
>
> "The librarians at Harvard are very punctilious about protecting their
> great treasures," Verba said.
>
> The project also poses other prickly issues, such as how to convert
> material written in foreign languages, and the issue of protecting
> copyrighted books.
>
> As it does with new books already included in its search engine, Google
> will only allow its users to view the bibliographies or other snippets of
> copyrighted books scanned from the libraries. The search engine will
> provide unrestricted access to all material in the public domain - work no
> longer covered by copyrights.
>
> The books scanned from libraries will be included in the same Google index
> the spans the Web.
>
> By throwing everything into the same pot, Google risks burying the library
> book results far below the Web documents containing the same search terms
> term, reducing the usefulness of the feature, said Danny Sullivan, editor
> of Search Engine Watch, an industry newsletter.
>
> Find this article at
> URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6709342/
>
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