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Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Library Books, Searchable Online !

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) today announced that it is working with the libraries of Harvard,Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the University of Oxford as well as The New York Public Library to digitally scan books from their collections so that users worldwide can search them in Google.

"Today's announcement is an expansion of the "Google Print" program,which assists publishers in making books and other offline information searchable online. Google is now working with libraries to digitally scan books from their collections, and over time will integrate this content into the Google index, to make it searchable for users worldwide".

What this means for publishers, authors and users ? According to the Press Release :

"For publishers and authors, this expansion of the Google Print program will increase the visibility of in and out of print books, and generate book sales via "Buy this Book" links and advertising. For users,
Google's library program will make it possible to search across library collections including out of print books and titles that weren't previously available anywhere but on a library shelf".

"Users searching with Google will see links in their search results page
when there are books relevant to their query. Clicking on a title
delivers a Google Print page where users can browse the full text of
public domain works and brief excerpts and/or bibliographic data of
copyrighted material. Library content will be displayed in keeping with
copyright law."

First the "Scholar" and now the "Libraries"...Its almost too good to be true...WOW !