Google to scan millions of books from University of California libraries

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(NaturalNews) The University of California has agreed to work with the controversial Google Books Library Project, as well as continuing to work with the Open Content Alliance (OCA), led by Yahoo, Microsoft and the not-for-profit Internet Archive.

Since last year, Google has been scanning, digitizing, and making searchable public domain and copyrighted books from the libraries of Oxford, Harvard and Stanford universities; the University of Michigan; the New York Public Library; and the Library of Congress.

Now, the U.C.'s 100 libraries across its 10 campuses will be added to that list, which has raised some concerns from their OCA partners.

"They're effectively giving their library to a single corporation," said Internet Archive founder Brewster Kahle, who added that agreeing to Google's limitations on the distribution and sharing of digitized books meant that the university had privatized its library system. "Having a public institution decide to go with Google's restrictions doesn't help the idea of libraries being open in the future."

Kahle noted he was pleased that the U.C. would still be working the OCA.

Representatives from the university have stated that they foresee no conflicts or problems from working with both archiving projects.

"We value our partnership with the OCA," said Jennifer Colvin, strategic communications manager for the California Digital Library. "As a public institution, we believe in making our materials as widely and freely available as possible."

The scanning is scheduled to start as soon as possible, Colvin said, but the where and how had yet to be determined. Although the terms of the agreement between Google and the U.C. were not revealed, it is known that both parties will keep a copy of each scanned book.

Under the Google Books Library Project, the company shares copies of scanned books with library partners, but will limit any other access. Since its beginnings, the project has aimed to digitize any book it can, and offer excerpts from books that are under copyright protection.

Such protections have plagued the library project since the beginning, and have spurred authors and publishers groups to bring a slew of still-pending lawsuits against Google, arguing that the project is in blatant violation of copyright laws. Google has publicly disagreed with this interpretation of their project.

University of California spokespersons said that the university was taking the controversy into account. "Obviously we're concerned with the sentiments and interests of our publishing partners," said Dan Greenstein, U.C. librarian at the California Digital Library. "We will work in compliance with the law."

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