The Google Books Library Project and the University of California

About the Google Books Library Project

The Google Books Library Project was launched in December 2004, when Google announced it would be working with the libraries of the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library to scan their books and make the full text searchable online. In August 2006, the University of California partnered with Google to participate in the project.

Through the partnership, Google will scan books from the UC libraries and make the items searchable on the Google website. UC will also receive a digital copy of each book scanned.

Benefits for the UC community and the public

The UC community and the public will benefit in numerous ways from the project. The digital copies will enhance the discoverability and ensure the preservation of the scanned books. Unlocking the wealth of information within our libraries and exposing it to the latest that search technologies have to offer will allow library users to make connections between information and ideas that were hitherto inaccessible, driving the pace of scholarly innovation and enhancing the use of our great libraries.

Digitized works that reside in the public domain will be read online and utilized in ways we cannot possibly imagine. Those protected by copyright will be discovered more expeditiously but will need to be accessed in the usual ways; through library lending or, where a user prefers, by acquiring a personal copy from a favorite bookseller.

What UC intends to do with the digital copies

The digital copies will be used in different ways depending upon their copyright status. The UC libraries will encourage the free and unfettered full-text access to scanned books that are in the public domain. The libraries may also take advantage of online, full-text public-domain holdings as an opportunity to explore how best to support scholarly exploitation of evolving, vast, full-text digital libraries. This could include linking to the full-text public domain works in the UC’s online library catalog, the Melvyl Catalog. Books that are protected by copyright will only be accessible to the extent allowed by copyright law.

As part of their historic missions, libraries have been charged with preserving the cultural memory and scholarly record in the public trust. UC will retain its digital copies of books protected by copyright in a dark archive – that is, in a digital preservation repository that is intended to ensure the longevity of its contents, but not to make its holdings accessible to end users. With digital copies we can cost effectively ensure long-term access to the contents of brittle books in the public domain, tens of thousands of which are printed on acid-rich paper and are crumbling into dust.

In addition, a dark archive provides a safeguard for the countless thousands of authors, publishers, and readers who would be devastated by catastrophic loss occasioned, for example, by a natural disaster such as an earthquake or fire. Anyone who doubts the impact that such disaster can have on our cultural memory need look no further than the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on our sister libraries in Louisiana and Mississippi.

How the digital files will not be used

UC governs its actions by current copyright law, and will continue to do so with regard to the digital copies its retains. In addition, the digital copies of in copyright works will not replace books or the continual need for our libraries to acquire them. Instead, it will encourage the use of books in our libraries’ collections by increasing their discoverability.

Number of books that will be scanned

There is the potential through the partnership to scan millions of books from the UC libraries. An exact number has not been determined.

How the books will be selected

Selection criteria and procedures will be developed and kept under review as part of project operations.

The costs to UC

The costs to UC involved in acquiring and managing the digital copy in a digital archive are around a dollar a book for the first five years, and ten cents a book per year thereafter. Additional investment would be required to if UC were to build its own access services with the public domain materials.

To access the books

As the books are scanned, they will be made available on Google’s website at: http://www.books.google.com/

Users can view the complete contents of books in the public domain. For books still in copyright, Google provides a “snippet” view showing a few sentences of the books. For reference works such as dictionaries, no preview is available.

How this project fits in with UC’s other digital library efforts

The UC libraries have worked for many years to harness technology and their vast library collections in the service of a broader mission – support for scholarly innovation, learning, patient care, and cultural engagement.

The libraries’ digitization efforts support work in a number of interrelated areas, including digital preservation, resource discovery, scholarly publishing, and digital collection development. These efforts, undertaken with a range of highly valued partners, also support the aim of providing free and unfettered access to public domain works, and to exploring the exciting range of innovative information services that can be built upon them in the service of the libraries’ numerous user communities.

This is why the UC libraries are so pleased to partner in our digitization efforts with the Google Library Program and the members of the Open Content Alliance, all of whom share our compelling vision of access to the public domain.