Google to scan books from major libraries
Stacks of hard-to-find books are being scanned into Google’s widely used Internet search engine in its attempt to establish a massive online reading room for five major libraries.
Material from the New York public library as well as libraries at four universities – Oxford, Harvard, Stanford and Michigan – will be indexed on California-based Google under the ambitious initiative announced today.
Scanning books so they can be read through computers isn’t new. Both Google and Amazon 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.
“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?”
The project gives Google’s search engine another potential drawing card as it faces stiffening competition for Yahoo and Microsoft’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 eight billion Web pages already has revolutionised the way people look for information.
Michigan’s library alone contains seven million 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.
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.
