| Google plans to bring libraries online | Today's Top Stories | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
|
Google is back with another project that will help users find priceless information on the Internet, via Google’s Print Program. Google is partnering with four libraries and the state of New York to bring thousands of books to the Internet. The libraries in agreement are from the University of Michigan, Stanford University, Harvard University and Oxford University. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, founders of Google, said they wanted to bring vast amount of information to the Internet even before they started Google. Few libraries said they were working with Google on this project for quite a while secretly. As a matter of fact, New York Public Library stated that only a few members of their staff are working with Google on this project. All libraries agree that this is a great initiative to making quality information available on the Internet. "We believe passionately that such universal access to the world's printed treasures is mission-critical for today's great public university," said Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Michigan (CNN). "Making the wealth of knowledge accumulated in the Bodleian Library's historic collections accessible to as many people as possible is at the heart of Oxford University's commitment to lifelong learning," said Reg Carr, the director of the university's library services. "We hope that Oxford's contribution to this project will be of scholarly use, as well as general interest, to people around the world (CNN)." The books will be scanned, both copyrighted and public domain, and published online for readers globally. Entire content for public domain books will be published while copyrighted books will have a quick blurb with location of where it can be found. Sources reported that Google will use a specialized, in-house designed scanner to scan the books into the database. According to Harvard University’s evaluators, the scanner is a much better solution that kindly treats the books when compared to today’s widely used and accepted similar equipment. Harvard will only offer 40,000 randomly selected books at the beginning to pilot the program. After that, there are plans to expand further. Many libraries also hinted on the subject that libraries will not go "out of business, " as there will always be need for librarians. As a matter of fact, stated one library, the visits to libraries have doubled in the past 10 years. Google expects other libraries to follow shortly after the initial launch. |
|
|
| Article Tools | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||
Email this article