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Wisconsin Joins Google Library ProjectThe University of Wisconsin at Madison has become the eighth library to join Google’s project to digitize books and provide access to their contents through its search engine. The agreement, announced October 12, will initially focus on public-domain materials from the 7.2-million items held by the university and the Wisconsin Historical Society.Wisconsin’s initial contributions to the Google Books Library Project will target holdings in the history of medicine, patents and discoveries, the history of engineering, American and Wisconsin history, Wisconsin state documents, and genealogical materials. “Whenever possible, the university intends to make the complete content of public documents available on the internet, including text, images, and maps,” said Edward Van Gemert, interim director of the library system. Wisconsin’s participation follows the September 26 announcement that the Complutense University of Madrid would become the first non-English-language library to join the project. The university’s 3-million holdings make it the second-largest library in Spain, behind only the National Library. Like Wisconsin, Complutense will only scan materials that are not under copyright. To counter a potential impediment to the growth of its Library Project, Google filed notices in late September that it would subpoena information from its competitors to defend itself against lawsuits filed by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild to block the program, charging that it violates copyright law. According to papers filed in U.S. District Court in New York, Google is seeking information on plans by Yahoo and Microsoft to scan library books as part of the Open Content Alliance, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News reported October 6. Google said it would also seek documents from Amazon, Random House, and the AAP. Google made bigger headlines October 9 when it announced that it had agreed to acquire the video-sharing website YouTube for stock valued at $1.65 billion. “The YouTube team has built an exciting and powerful media platform that complements Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful,” said Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt. “Our companies share similar values; we both always put our users first and are committed to innovating to improve their experience. Together, we are natural partners to offer a compelling media entertainment service to users, content owners and advertisers.” Posted October 13, 2006. |
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