Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Wednesday, August 08, 2007

Cornell joins the Google Library project

Cornell University Library becomes newest partner in Google Book Search Library Project, a press release from Cornell, August 7, 2007.  Excerpt:

Cornell University Library is partnering with Google Inc. to digitize materials from its superb collections and make them available online. 

“In its quest to be the world’s land-grant university, Cornell strives to serve the scholarly and research needs of those beyond the campus.  This project advances Cornell’s ability to provide global access to our library resources...” said Cornell President David J. Skorton.

Google will digitize up to 500,000 works from Cornell University Library and make them available online using Google Book Search.  As a result, materials from the library’s exceptional collections will be easily accessible to students, scholars and people worldwide, supporting the library’s long-standing commitment to make its collections broadly available.

“Research libraries today are integral partners in the academic enterprise through their support of research, teaching and learning. They also serve a public good by enhancing access to the works of the world's best minds,” said Interim University Librarian Anne R. Kenney.... 

Cornell is the 27th institution to join the Google Book Search Library Project, which digitizes books from major libraries and makes it possible for Internet users to search their collections online.  Over the next six years, Cornell will provide Google with public domain and copyrighted holdings from its collections.  If a work has no copyright restrictions, the full text will be available for online viewing.  For books protected by copyright, users will just get the basic background (such as the book’s title and the author’s name), at most a few lines of text related to their search and information about where they can buy or borrow a book.  Cornell University Library will work with Google to choose materials that complement the contributions of the project’s other partners.  In addition to making the materials available through its online search service, Google will also provide Cornell with a digital copy of all the materials scanned, which will eventually be incorporated into the university’s own digital library.