UCal and Google in CHE

["James J. O'Donnell" <jod@georgetown.edu>]

Thursday, August 3, 2006

U. of California Is in Talks to Join Google's Library-Scanning Project

By SCOTT CARLSON

The University of California is negotiating with Google to join 
the search-engine giant's book-digitization project. If the 
company and the university system agree to a deal -- which, 
sources within the university say, could happen soon -- Google 
might have access to as many as 34 million books within the 
system.

Details about the negotiations and the potential agreement, 
including who might pay for the digitization project, are scant. 
The university system's Board of Regents heard a presentation, 
"Large-Scale Digitization of UC Library Holdings: An Historic 
Opportunity," at a meeting in late July, but the minutes of that 
meeting are not yet available.

Daniel Greenstein, director of the system's California Digital 
Library, would not offer specifics of the negotiations, other 
than to say, "The deal is not done."

Representatives of Google did not respond to telephone calls and 
e-mail messages from The Chronicle on Wednesday. News of the 
talks was first reported in the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday.

The University of California would join libraries at Harvard and 
Stanford Universities, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, 
and the University of Oxford, as well as the New York Public 
Library, all of which have agreements with the search-engine 
company to scan portions of their collections. Michigan's 
agreement appears to be the most comprehensive: Google is 
scanning the university's entire library holdings of more than 
seven million volumes.

[SNIP]

Copyright 2006 Chronicle of Higher Education