Google/University of Michigan project opens the way to universal
access to information
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http://www.umich.edu/news/index.html?Releases/2004/Dec04/library/index
ANN ARBOR, Mich.�Google and the University of Michigan (U-M) to-
day (Tuesday) announced a joint agreement that will add the 7
million volumes in the U-M library to the Google search engine
and open the way to universal access to information.
Google will digitally scan and make searchable virtually the en-
tire collection of the U-M library. A person looking for infor-
mation will gain the extraordinary capability to use Google to
locate and read the full text of printed works that are out of
copyright. For works in copyright, a search will point the way
to the existence of relevant volumes by returning a snippet of
text, along with information that identifies publishers or li-
braries where the work can be found.
U-M brings to the partnership a collection of great size and
breadth and a position as one of the nation�s leaders in digital
preservation. The U-M Library is the sixth largest in the coun-
try, and its digital collection of roughly 22,000 volumes also
is one of the most ambitious in the country. Notable is the Mak-
ing of America Collection, a thematically related digital li-
brary of more than 9,000 volumes that documents American social
history from the antebellum period through Reconstruction.
(http://www.hti.umich.edu/m/moagrp/) At its current rate of
digital production, however, it would take the University more
than a thousand years to digitize the 7 million volumes in the
collection. Google plans to do the job in a matter of years.
Google also has entered into agreements with Harvard University,
Stanford University, Oxford University and the New York Public
Library.