29 August 2006

Rich knowledge: Google pairs up with the University of California

The University of California has recently announced its partnership with Google in a book search project, an undertaking which will make millions of the UC library's books available online. The year and a half old project, already backed by Stanford University, Harvard University, Oxford University and the University of Michigan, is about to gain its biggest boost yet. With over one hundred libraries in the ten campus system, the University of California boasts the largest research and academic library in the world.

The contract, funded solely by the top search engine company, will digitize millions of the University's books, thus making them searchable by anyone who has access to the Web.

However, the program has already been met with a hefty share of criticism - mostly from publishers and authors who claim that the project not only supports a reduction of book sales, but that it increases the illegitimate use of information. In fact, Google has already faced two lawsuits - one from the Association of American Publishers, and another from the Author's Guild - on grounds of copyright infringement. Yet the search engine company, likely having foreseen such criticism, has taken measures to steer clear of any possible 'infringement' by announcing that it will only scan and provide full-text, 'searchable' access for out-of-copy books in the public domain. As for those books which remain under copyright protection, Google will publish background information such as the title, author, and where to purchase or borrow the book rather than any text from the books.

In defence of the University of California's decision to partake in Google's book search project, the University of Michigan's Interim Co-University Librarian, John Wilkin, said that there is immense importance in making 'great collection[s] discoverable by all who search on the Web,' and that the action in fact endorses the expansion of knowledge worldwide.

Neither the search engine company nor the University will receive any financial endorsement from users for the purpose of accessing scanned items online. Google will, however, still receive profits from ads which will accompany the searches.

While the contract is in effect, the University of California will not be allowed to share, license or sell its library material to any other parties and will only be permitted to lend ten percent of its scanned material to other libraries for academic purposes. The contract, which has been made public, will run for six years, with a planned renewal every year thereafter based on an agreement from all parties.

Of course, every single book will have to be scanned individually: a tedious task which Google has taken on and will initiate within the next few weeks. Yet, fortunately for Google, they will not be scanning anywhere close to the 34 million books which the UC library has in its collection, as the public domain of the library currently holds only a few million books.

The UC system and Google have expressed an immense enthusiasm to commence with the project, despite all the criticism they've been faced with. John Oakley, Chair of UC's systemwide Academic Senate and professor of law at UC Davis, stated that:

"The academic enterprise is fundamentally about discovery. We contribute to it immeasurably by unlocking the wealth of information maintained within our libraries and exposing it to the latest that search technologies have to offer."

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