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Big Ten in Google Deal to Digitize Books

Posted on: Wednesday, 6 June 2007, 21:00 CDT

Up to 10 million books from 12 Midwest U.S. universities will be digitized in an agreement with Google Inc., a university consortium said Wednesday.

The agreement -- costing the schools as much as $600 million -- nearly doubles the number of universities participating in the Google Books Library Project, the consortium and the University of Minnesota said.

The consortium, known as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation -- comprising the 11 Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago -- join the ranks of prestigious institutions like Harvard University, Stanford University and Oxford University, which already are participating in the Google Book Search project, University of Minnesota Provost Thomas Sullivan said.

For our students and researchers, speedy access to printed volumes will change the face and pace of scholarly research, he said.

Internet users will be able to use keywords to search and download full book texts.

The consortium's contract with Google runs six years, with an option to renew, the University of Minnesota said.

Each university will cover the costs of preparing the books for digitization, estimated at $60 a book. Google will fund the digitization itself.

Source: United Press International

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