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The Google Books Library Project is an effort by Google to scan and make searchable the collections of several major research libraries.^[1] The project, along with Google's Partner Program, comprise Google Books (formerly Google Book Search). Along with bibliographic information, snippets of text from a book are often viewable. If a book is out of copyright and in the public domain, the book is fully available to read or to download.^[2]

Participants[link]

The Google Books Library Project continues to evolve;^[3] however, only some of the institutional partners are listed on the web page currently maintained by Google:^[4]

Initial Project Partners[link]

The number of academic libraries participating in the digitization and uploading of books from their collections has grown beyond the original five: Harvard, Michigan, Stanford, Oxford, and the New York Public Library.

Harvard University[link]

Harvard University (and Harvard University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[5] The Harvard University Library (HUL) today is best understood as a coordinated system of more than 80 libraries with shared holdings. The University Library is also a department of the University's central administration through which the libraries collaborate in the areas of digital acquisitions and collections, information technology, high-density storage, and preservation.^[6]

The Harvard University Library and Google are building on a successful pilot conducted by Harvard and Google throughout 2005. The project will increase Internet access to the holdings of the Harvard University Library, which includes more than 15.8 million volumes. While physical access to Harvard's library materials generally is restricted to current Harvard students, faculty, and researchers, or to scholars who can come to Cambridge, the Harvard-Google Project has been designed to enable both members of the Harvard community and users everywhere to discover works in the Harvard collection.

"The new century presents important new opportunities for libraries, including Harvard's, and for those individuals who use them. The collaboration between major research libraries and Google will create an important public good of benefit to students, teachers, scholars, and readers everywhere. The project harnesses the power of the Internet to allow users to identify books of interest with a precision and at a speed previously unimaginable. The user will then be guided to find books in local libraries or to purchase them from publishers and book vendors. And, for books in the public domain, there will be even broader access."^[4]

"The Harvard-Google Project links the search power of the Internet to the depth of knowledge in Harvard's world-renowned libraries. Harvard has been collecting books for nearly four centuries. Among our out-of-copyright books are countless unique copies, unusual editions, and neglected or forgotten works. Our efforts with Google will bring about the broad dissemination of the knowledge contained in those books and, with it, significant information about the world views that those books represent .... By working with Google, Harvard is furthering an essential aspect of the University Library's mission, which is to serve scholars around the world."

-- Sidney Verba, the former Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and former Director of the University Library.^[5]

New York Public Library[link]

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is an institutional participant in the project.^[7]

In this pilot program, NYPL is working with Google to offer a collection of its public domain books, which will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online. Users will be able to search and browse the full text of these works. When the scanning process is complete, the books may be accessed from both The New York Public Library's website and from the Google search engine. ^[7]

"The New York Public Library Research Libraries were struck by the convergence of Google's mission with their own. We see the digitization project as a transformational moment in the access to information and wanted not only to learn from it but also to influence it. Our response at present is a conservative one, with a limited number of volumes in excellent condition, in selected languages and in the public domain. With appropriate evaluation of this limited participation, we look forward to a more expansive collaboration in the future."

-– David Ferriero, Andrew W. Mellon Director and Chief Executive of the Research Libraries, The New York Public Library.^[4]

Stanford University[link]

Stanford University (and Stanford University Libraries/SULAIR) is an institutional participant in the project.^[8]

"Stanford has been digitizing texts for years now to make them more accessible and searchable, but with books, as opposed to journals, such efforts have been severely limited in scope for both technical and financial reasons. The Google arrangement catapults our effective digital output from the boutique scale to the truly industrial. Through this program and others like it, Stanford intends to promote learning and stimulate innovation."

-– Michael A. Keller, University Librarian.^[4]

University of Michigan[link]

Notice about the project

The University of Michigan (and the University of Michigan Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[9]

"The project with Google is core to our mission as a great public university to advance knowledge — on campus and beyond. By joining this partnership that makes our library holdings searchable through Google, UM serves as an agent in an initiative that radically increases the availability of information to the public. The University of Michigan embraces this project as a means to make information available as broadly and conveniently as possible. Moreover, the UM Library embarked on this ground-breaking partnership for a number of very compelling reasons:

• "We believe that, beyond providing basic access to library collections, this activity is critically transformative, enabling the University Library to build on and re-conceive vital library services for the new millennium.
• "This work will create new ways for users to search and access library content, opening up our collections to our own users and to users throughout the world.
• "Although we have engaged in large-scale, preservation-based conversion of materials in the Library's collection for several years, and have been a leader in digital preservation efforts among research libraries, we know that only through partnerships of this sort can conversion of this scale be achieved. Our program is strong, and we have been able to digitize approximately 5,000 volumes/year; nevertheless, at this rate, it would take us more than a thousand years to digitize our entire collection."

-– John P. Wilkin, Associate University Librarian.^[4]

University of Oxford[link]

University of Oxford is an institutional participant in this project.^[10] Oxford is the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and its historic Bodleian Library is the oldest university library.

"The Bodleian Library's mission, from its founding in 1602, has been based on Sir Thomas Bodley's vision of a library serving the worldwide 'Republic of Letters', with the Library's collections open to all who have need to use them. To this day over 60% of readers who use and work in the Bodleian Library have no direct affiliation with the University of Oxford . The Google Library Project in Oxford testifies to our ongoing commitment to enable and facilitate access to our content for the scholarly community and beyond. The initiative will carry forward Sir Thomas Bodley's vision and the ethos of the Bodleian Library into the digital age, allowing readers from around the world to access the Library's collections over the World Wide Web."

-– Ronald Milne, former Director of Oxford University Library & Bodleian Librarian.^[4]

Additional Project Partners[link]

Other institutional partners have joined the Project in the years since the partnership was first announced.

Bavarian State Library[link]

The Bavarian State Library (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek or BSB) is an institutional participant in the project.^[11]

"With today's announcement we are opening our library to the world and bringing the true purpose of libraries — the discovery of books and knowledge — a decisive step further in into the digital era. This is an exciting effort to help readers around the world discover and access Germany's rich literary tradition online — whenever and wherever they want."

— Dr. Rolf Griebel, Director General of the Bavarian State Library.^[4]

Columbia University[link]

Columbia University (and Columbia University Library System) is an institutional participant in the project.^[4]

"Our participation in the Google Book Search Library Project will add significantly to the extensive digital resources the Libraries already deliver," said James Neal, Columbia's vice president for information services and university librarian. "It will enable the Libraries to make available more significant portions of its extraordinary archival and special collections to scholars and researchers worldwide in ways that will ultimately change the nature of scholarship."

— James G. Neal, University Librarian and Vice-President for Information Services at Columbia University.^[4]

Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)[link]

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) is an institutional participant in the project.^[12] The CIC developed in the late 1950s from a cautious exploration of the ways in which 11 major universities — two private and nine state-supported — might pool their resources for the common good. Today the CIC is an active participant in the Google Books Library Project, which becomes something of a logical extension of the initial working relationships forged a half century ago amongst Big Ten universities and the University of Chicago.

• The CIC is a consortium of 13 research universities:
  • Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana
  • Michigan State University
  • Northwestern University
  • Ohio State University
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Purdue University
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Illinois
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Michigan
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Nebraska–Lincoln
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison

The CIC is guided by the Provosts of the member universities; and the CIC Digital Library Initiatives Overview Committee monitors the digitization and dissemination of books in the CIC collections.^[13]

"This partnership with Google is one of the most ambitious undertakings in the history of the CIC, and sets the stage for a remarkable transformation of library services and information access. We're opening up these resources as both a common good shared among the universities, as well as a public good available more broadly. "

— Barbara McFadden Allen, Director of the CIC.^[4]

Complutense University of Madrid[link]

The Complutense University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense) is an institutional participant in the project.^[14]

"Out-of-copyright books previously only available to people with access to the University Complutense of Madrid's Library, or the money to travel, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project."

— Carlos Berzosa, Chancellor.^[4]

Cornell University[link]

Cornell University (and Cornell University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[15]

"Research libraries today are integral partners in the academic enterprise through their support of research, teaching and learning. They also serve a public good by enhancing access to the works of the world's best minds. As a major research library, Cornell University Library is pleased to join its peer institutions in this partnership with Google. The outcome of this relationship is a significant reduction in the time and effort associated with providing scholarly full-text resources online."

— Ann R. Kenney, Interim Cornell University Librarian.^[4]

Ghent University Library[link]

Ghent University (and Boekentoren/Ghent University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[16]

'We are thrilled to open our books and our library to the world through this project. This is an exciting effort to help readers — no matter where they are — discover and access part of Belgium and Europe's rich literary tradition and culture. In addition, we are about to start a multi-year project to renovate our library building, and while our library's doors will be closed, its books will remain open to students and academics through Google Book Search."

— Sylvia Van Peteghem, Chief Librarian, Ghent University Library.^[4]

Keio University[link]

Keio University (and Keio Media Centers (Libraries)) is an institutional participant in the project.^[17]

"The Google project allows us to make our collections visible worldwide, so that our books will contribute to research and education on a global scale. Our university was founded in 1858 by Yukichi Fukuzawa, who was well known for his commitment to bringing information and media forward in modern Japan. This makes Keio ideally suited to be the first Japanese library to participate in Google Book Search."

— Professor S. Sugiyama, Director, Keio University Library.^[4]

National Library of Catalonia[link]

The National Library of Catalonia (Biblioteca de Catalunya) is an institutional participant in the project.^[18]

"It once was the case that only those who could visit our library were able to 'visit' our books. Now, anyone interested in the vast number of titles our library houses will be able to find and access them online–or perhaps just discover them by chance via a simple search of the Google Book Search index. This is a tremendous step forward for enabling readers all around the world to discover and access the rich history of Catalonian, Castilian, and Latin American literature."

-- Dolors Lamarca, Director of the National Library of Barcelona.^[4]

Princeton University[link]

Princeton University (and Princeton University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[19]

"Generations of Princeton librarians have devoted themselves to building a remarkable collection of books in thousands of subjects and dozens of languages. Having the portion of that collection not covered by copyright available online will make it easier for Princeton students and faculty to do research, and joining the Google partnership allows us to share our collection with researchers worldwide, a step very much in keeping with the University's unofficial motto of Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations."

— Karin Trainer, Princeton University Librarian.^[4]

University of California[link]

The University of California is an institutional participant in the project.^[20]

"By unlocking the wealth of information maintained within our libraries and exposing it to the latest that search technologies have to offer, the University of California is continuing its work to harness technology and our library collections in support of research, learning, patient care, and cultural engagement. In this new world, people will make connections between information and ideas that were hitherto inaccessible, driving the pace of innovation in all areas of life – academic, economic, and civic – and enhancing the use of the world's great libraries.

"With digital copies of our library holdings, we will also provide a safeguard for the countless thousands of authors, publishers, and readers who would be devastated by catastrophic loss occasioned, for example, by natural disaster. Anyone who doubts the impact that such disaster can have on our cultural memory need look no further than the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina on our sister libraries in the Gulf States.

"As an institution that has built these vast collections as a public good and in the public trust, joining the Google library partnership was the right thing to do."

— Daniel Greenstein, Associate Vice Provost for Scholarly Information and University Librarian.^[4]

University Library of Lausanne[link]

The University of Lausanne (and the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne) is an institutional participant in the project.^[21]

"Out of copyright books previously only available to people with access to Lausanne's university library, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project".

— Hubert A. Villard, Director of the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne.^[4]

University of Mysore[link]

The University of Mysore (and the Mysore University Library) is an institutional participant in the project.^[22]

University of Texas at Austin[link]

The University of Texas at Austin (and the University of Texas Libraries) is an institutional participant in this project.^[23]

"University libraries in our society are entrusted with the critical mission of collecting and providing access to information spanning the entire range of human knowledge. Our libraries are also responsible for effectively preserving this knowledge and ensuring access to it over vast periods of time. At the University of Texas at Austin, we hold a deep commitment to each of these objectives and believe that participating in this venture will help ensure our ability to meet those commitments far into the future."

— Fred Heath, Vice Provost and Director of Libraries.^[4]

University of Virginia[link]

The University of Virginia (and the University of Virginia Library) is an institutional participant in this project.^[24]

"The U.Va. Library was a pioneer in digitizing public domain materials. We started with printed texts in 1992, and faculty and students quickly discovered that long-forgotten and out-of-print texts could reach new audiences and spark new scholarship. We have often talked about libraries without walls, but now we are even closer to realizing that vision, thanks to this partnership."

— Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian, University of Virginia.^[4]

University of Wisconsin–Madison[link]

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (and the University of Wisconsin Digital Collection) is an institutional participant in this project.^[25]

"The combined library collections of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library comprise one of the largest collections of documents and historical materials in the United States. Through this landmark partnership with Google, Wisconsin is taking a leading role in preserving public domain works for future generations and making the Library's resources widely available for education and research. This effort truly exemplifies the vision of The Wisconsin Idea—the notion that the boundaries of the university are limitless. The Wisconsin libraries have been following in this tradition. The Google digitization efforts will enable the libraries to expand access to public domain materials that have heretofore only been accessible in the libraries. Much of this material is rare and one-of-a-kind, providing a rich, open source of information for educational, research and general public use."

— Edward Van Gemert, Interim Director, UW–Madison Libraries.^[4]

See also[link]

• HathiTrust
• Google Book Search Settlement

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Lester, June and Wallace C. Koehler. (2007). Fundamentals of Information Studies: Understanding Information and Its Environment. New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers. 13-ISBN 978-1-555-70594-7/10-ISBN 1-555-70594-4; OCLC 122526045
• Miller, Michael. (2007). Googlepedia: the Ultimate Google Resource. Indianapolis, Indiana: Que. 13-ISBN 978-0-789-73639-0/10-ISBN 0-789-73639-X; OCLC 224762694
• Stein, Linda L, and Peter J. Lehu. (2009). Literary Research and the American Realism and Naturalism Period: Strategies and Sources. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. 13-ISBN 978-0-810-86141-1/10-ISBN 0-810-86141-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-810-86242-5/10-ISBN 0-810-86242-5; OCLC 233798804

External links[link]

• Google Books website
• Google Library Partners
• Digital Library Federation
• The European Library

Google Books

250px Google Books screenshot
Developer(s)	Google
Operating system	Any (web-based application)
Type	Online book search
Website	books.google.com

Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search and Google Print) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical character recognition, and stored in its digital database.^[1] The service was formerly known as Google Print when it was introduced at the Frankfurt Book Fair in October 2004. Google's Library Project, also now known as Google Book Search, was announced in December 2004.

Results from Google Books show up in both Google Web Search and the dedicated Google Books site (books.google.com). Up to three results from the Google Books index may be displayed, if relevant, above other search results in Google Web Search.

A click on a result from Google Books opens an interface in which the user may view pages from the book, if out of copyright or if the copyright owner has given permission. Books in the public domain are available in "full view" and free for download. For in-print books where permission has been granted, the number of viewable pages is limited to a "preview" set by a variety of access restrictions and security measures, some based on user-tracking.^[2] For books where permission for a "preview" has been refused, only permission for "snippets" (two to three lines of text) may be permitted, but the full text of the book is searchable on this limited basis. Where the owner of a book cannot be identified, a "snippet" view may be implemented. For other books that have neither a "full view", nor "preview", nor a "snippet" view, the text is not searchable at all, and Google Books provides no identification of content beyond the book title. For this reason, Google-Books searches are an unreliable indicator of the prevalence of specific usages or terms, because many authoritative works fall into the unsearchable category.

Most scanned works are no longer in print or commercially available.^[3] For those which are, the site provides links to the website of the publisher and booksellers.

The Google Books database continues to grow. For users outside the United States, though, Google must be sure that the work in question is indeed out of copyright under local laws. According to a member of the Google Books Support Team, "Since whether a book is in the public domain can often be a tricky legal question, we err on the side of caution and display at most a few snippets until we have determined that the book has entered the public domain."^[4] Users outside the United States can however access a large number of public domain books scanned by Google using copies stored on the Internet Archive.^[5]

Many of the books are scanned using the Elphel 323 camera^[6][7] at a rate of 1,000 pages per hour.^[8] The scanning process is subject to errors. For example, some pages are unreadable, or upside down, or in the wrong order. It happens that some pages of one book appear interleaved with those of another, or an entire book may be attributed to the wrong title altogether. Book information such as authors, publishers, dates and so on, may be incorrect or abbreviated incoherently. Although at one time Google provided feedback links to report these problems, the mechanisms for readers to provide this feedback have become more and more curtailed as time goes on.

The initiative has been hailed for its potential to offer unprecedented access to what may become the largest online body of human knowledge^[9][10] and promoting the democratization of knowledge,^[11] but it has also been criticized for potential copyright violations.^[11][12]

As of March 2012, the number of scanned books was over 20 million, but the scanning process has slowed down.^[13] Google estimated in 2010 that there were about 130 million unique books in the world,^[14][15] and stated that it intended to scan all of them by the end of the decade.^[15]

Timeline[link]

2004[link]

December 2004 Google signaled an extension to its Google Print initiative known as the Google Print Library Project.^[16] Google announced partnerships with several high-profile university and public libraries, including the University of Michigan, Harvard (Harvard University Library), Stanford (Green Library), Oxford (Bodleian Library), and the New York Public Library. According to press releases and university librarians, Google plans to digitize and make available through its Google Books service approximately 15 million volumes within a decade. The announcement soon triggered controversy, as publisher and author associations challenged Google's plans to digitize, not just books in the public domain, but also titles still under copyright.

2005[link]

September–October 2005 Two lawsuits against Google charge that the company has not respected copyrights and has failed to properly compensate authors and publishers. One is a class action suit on behalf of authors (Authors Guild v. Google, Sept. 20 2005) and the other is a civil lawsuit brought by five large publishers and the Association of American Publishers. (McGraw Hill v. Google, Oct. 19 2005)^{[12][17][18][19][20][21]}

November 2005: Google changed the name of this service from Google Print to Google Book Search.^[22] Its program enabling publishers and authors to include their books in the service was renamed "Google Books Partner Program"^[23] and the partnership with libraries became Google Books Library Project.

2006[link]

August 2006: The University of California System announced that it would join the Books digitization project. This includes a portion of the 34 million volumes within the approximately 100 libraries managed by the System.^[24]

September 2006: The Complutense University of Madrid becomes the first Spanish-language library to join the Google Books Library Project.^[25]

October 2006: The University of Wisconsin–Madison announced that it would join the Book Search digitization project along with the Wisconsin Historical Society Library. Combined, the libraries have 7.2 million holdings.^[26]

November 2006: The University of Virginia joins the project. Its libraries contain more than five million volumes and more than 17 million manuscripts, rare books and archives.^[27]

2007[link]

January 2007: The University of Texas at Austin announced that it would join the Book Search digitization project. At least one million volumes will be digitized from the University's 13 library locations.

March 2007: The Bavarian State Library announced a partnership with Google to scan more than a million public domain and out-of-print works in German as well as English, French, Italian, Latin, and Spanish.^[28]

May 2007: A book digitizing project partnership was announced jointly by Google and the Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne.^[29]

May 2007: The Boekentoren Library of Ghent University will participate with Google in digitizing and making digitized versions of 19th century books in the French and Dutch languages available online.^[30]

June 2007: The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) announced that its twelve member libraries would participate in scanning 10 million books over the course of the next six years.^[31]

July 2007: Keio University became Google's first library partner in Japan with the announcement that they would digitize at least 120,000 public domain books.^[32]

August 2007: Google announced that it would digitize up to 500,000 both copyrighted and public domain items from Cornell University Library. Google will also provide a digital copy of all works scanned to be incorporated into the university's own library system.^[33]

September 2007: Google added a feature that allows users to share snippets of books that are in the public domain. The snippets may appear exactly as they do in the scan of the book or as plain text.^[34]

September 2007: Google debuts a new feature called "My Library" which allows users to create personal customized libraries, selections of books that they can label, review, rate, or full-text search.^[35]

December 2007: Columbia University was added as a partner in digitizing public domain works.^[36]

2008[link]

May 2008: Microsoft tapers off and plans to end its scanning project which reached 750,000 books and 80 million journal articles.^[37]

October 2008: A settlement is reached between the publishing industry and Google after two years of negotiation. Google agrees to compensate authors and publishers in exchange for the right to make millions of books available to the public.^[12][38]

November 2008: Google reaches the 7 million book mark for items scanned by Google and by their publishing partners. 1 million are in full preview mode and 1 million are fully viewable and downloadable public domain works. About five million are currently out of print.^[3][39][40]

December 2008: Google announces the inclusion of magazines in Google Books. Titles include New York Magazine, Ebony, Popular Mechanics, and others.^[41][42]

2009[link]

May 2009: At the annual BookExpo convention in New York, Google signaled its intent to introduce a program that would enable publishers to sell digital versions of their newest books direct to consumers through Google.^[43]

In December 2009 a French court shut down the scanning of copyrighted books published in France saying it violated copyright laws. It was the first major legal loss for the scanning project.^[44]

2010[link]

April 2010: Visual artists were not included in the previous lawsuit and settlement, and are the plaintiff groups in another law suit, and say they intend to bring more than just Google Books under scrutiny. “The new class action,” reads the statement, “goes beyond Google’s Library Project, and includes Google’s other systematic and pervasive infringements of the rights of photographers, illustrators and other visual artists.” ^[45]

May 2010 : It is reported that Google will launch a digital book store termed as Google Editions.^[46] It will compete with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and other electronic book retailers with its very own e-book store. Unlike others, Google Editions will be completely online and will not require a specific device (such as kindle, Nook, iPad, etc.).

June 2010: Google passes 12 million books scanned.^[15]

August 2010: It was announced that Google intends to scan all known existing 129,864,880 books by the end of the decade, accounting to over 4 billion digital pages and 2 trillion words in total.^[15]

December 2010: Google eBooks (Google Editions) is launched in the US.^[47]

2011[link]

March 2011: A federal judge rejects the settlement reached between the publishing industry and Google.^[48]

2012[link]

March 2012 Google passes 20 million books scanned.^[13]

Google Books Library Project participants[link]

The number of participating institutions has grown since the inception of the Google Books Library Project;^[16] The University of Mysore has been mentioned in many media reports as being a library partner.^[49][50] They are not, however, listed as a partner by Google.^[51]

Initial partners[link]

• Harvard University, Harvard University Library, Harvard + Google
• University of Michigan, University of Michigan Library, Michigan + Google
• New York Public Library, New York Public Library + Google
• University of Oxford, Bodleian Library, Oxford + Google
• Stanford University, Stanford University Libraries (SULAIR), Stanford + Google

Additional partners[link]

Other institutional partners have joined the Project since the partnership was first announced.

• Bavarian State Library, Bavaria + Google, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek + Google (in German)
• Columbia University, Columbia University Library System, Columbia + Google
• Committee on Institutional Cooperation, CIC + Google
• Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid + Google, Complutense Universidad + Google (in Spanish)
• Cornell University, Cornell University Library, Cornell + Google
• Ghent University, Ghent University Library/Boekentoren, Ghent/Gent + Google
• Keio University, Keio Media Centers (Libraries), Keio + Google (in English), Keio + Google (in Japanese)
• La Bibliothèque Municipale de Lyon, Lyon + Google (in French)
• Princeton University, Princeton University Library, Princeton + Google
• University of California, California Digital Library, California + Google
• University of Lausanne, Cantonal and University Library of Lausanne/Bibliothèque Cantonale et Universitaire (BCU) + Google (in French)
• University of Mysore, Mysore University Library, Mysore + Google
• University of Texas at Austin, University of Texas Libraries, Texas + Google
• University of Virginia, University of Virginia Library, Virginia + Google
• University of Wisconsin–Madison, University of Wisconsin Libraries, Wisconsin + Google

Copyright infringement, fair use and related issues[link]

The publishing industry and writers' groups have criticized the project's inclusion of snippets of copyrighted works as infringement. In late 2005 the Authors Guild of America and Association of American Publishers separately sued Google, citing "massive copyright infringement." Google countered that its project represented a fair use and is the digital age equivalent of a card catalog with every word in the publication indexed.^[12] Despite Google taking measures to provide full text of only works in public domain, and providing only a searchable summary online for books still under copyright protection, publishers maintain that Google has no right to copy full text of books with copyrights and save them, in large amounts, into its own database.^[52]

Other lawsuits followed but in 2006 a German lawsuit was withdrawn.^[53] In June 2006, Hervé de la Martinière,^[54] a French publisher known as La Martinière and Éditions du Seuil,^[55] announced its intention to sue Google France.^[56] In 2009, the Paris Civil Court awarded €300,000 (approximately US$430,000) in damages and interest and ordered Google to pay €10,000 a day until it removes the publisher's books from its database.^[55][57] The court wrote, "Google violated author copyright laws by fully reproducing and making accessible" books that Seuil owns without its permission^[55] and that Google "committed acts of breach of copyright, which are of harm to the publishers".^[54] Google said it will appeal.^[55] Syndicat National de l'Edition, which joined the lawsuit, said Google has scanned about 100,000 French works under copyright.^[55]

In December 2009, Chinese author Mian Mian filed a civil lawsuit for $8,900 against Google for scanning her novel, Acid Lovers. This is the first such lawsuit to be filed against Google in China.^[58] Also, in November that year, the China Written Works Copyright Society (CWWCS) accused Google of scanning 18,000 books by 570 Chinese writers without authorization. Google agreed on Nov 20 to provide a list of Chinese books it had scanned, but the company refused to admit having "infringed" copyright laws.^[59]

In March 2007, Thomas Rubin, associate general counsel for copyright, trademark, and trade secrets at Microsoft, accused Google of violating copyright law with their book search service. Rubin specifically criticized Google's policy of freely copying any work until notified by the copyright holder to stop.^[60]

Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor of Media Studies and Law at the University of Virginia has argued^[61] that the project poses a danger for the doctrine of fair use, because the fair use claims are arguably so excessive that it may cause judicial limitation of that right.^[62] It can also be said that, because rights are almost always inherently limited in some way, judicial consideration per se, including limitation, of the principle poses no "threat" at all (and might produce benefit through articulated consideration and delineation - that would have not otherwise occurred - of the principle).^{[citation needed]} Because Author's Guild v. Google did not go to court, the fair use dispute is left unresolved.

Google licensing of public domain works is also an area of concern due to using of digital watermarking techniques with the books. Some published works that are in the public domain, such as all works created by the U.S. Federal government, are still treated like other works under copyright, and therefore locked after 1922.^[63]

Settlement agreement[link]

The Authors Guild, the publishing industry and Google entered into a settlement agreement October 28, 2008, with Google agreeing to pay a total of $125 million to rights-holders of books they had scanned, to cover the plaintiffs' court costs, and to create a Book Rights Registry. The settlement was set to be approved by the court sometime after October 2009.^[12] Reaction to the settlement was mixed, with Harvard Library, one of the original contributing libraries to Google Library, choosing to withdraw its partnership with Google if "more reasonable terms" could not be found.^[64] As part of the $125 million settlement signed in October 2008, Google created a Google Book Settlement web site that went active on February 11, 2009. This site allowed authors and other rights holders of out-of-print (but copyright) books to submit a claim by June 5, 2010.^[65] In return they were to receive $60 per full book, or $5 to $15 for partial works.^[65] In return, Google was to be able to index the books and display snippets in search results, as well as up to 20% of each book in preview mode.^[65] Google was also to be able to show ads on these pages and make available for sale digital versions of each book.^[65] Authors and copyright holders were to receive 63 percent of all advertising and e-commerce revenues associated with their works.^[65]

In the US, several organizations who took no part of the settlement, like the American Society of Journalists and Authors, criticized the settlement fundamentally.^[66] Moreover, the New York book settlement is not restricted to US authors, but relevant to authors of the whole world. This led to objections even on the level of some European governments and critical voices in many European newspapers.^[67] American author Ursula K. Le Guin has launched a petition against the settlement, which was signed by almost 300 authors.^[68]

In October 2009, Google countered ongoing critics by stating that its scanning of books and putting them online would protect the world's cultural heritage; Google co-founder Sergey Brin stated, "The famous Library of Alexandria burned three times, in 48 BC, AD 273 and AD 640, as did the Library of Congress, where a fire in 1851 destroyed two-thirds of the collection. I hope such destruction never happens again, but history would suggest otherwise."^[69] This characterization was rebuked by Pam Samuelson, UC Berkeley Professor of Law^[70] saying "Libraries everywhere are terrified that Google will engage in price-gouging when setting prices for institutional subscriptions to GBS contents ... Brin forgot to mention another significant difference between GBS and traditional libraries: their policies on patron privacy. ... Google has been unwilling to make meaningful commitments to protect user privacy. Traditional libraries, by contrast, have been important guardians of patron privacy."^[71] Others have denounced the settlement for neglecting to protect reader privacy.^[72]

On March 22, 2011, U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin issued a ruling on the amended settlement agreement, rejecting it. From the ruling: "While the digitization of books and the creation of a universal digital library would benefit many, the ASA would simply go too far. It would permit this class action - - which was brought against defendant Google Inc. ("Google") to challenge its scanning of books and display of "snippets" for on-line searching - - to implement a forward-looking business arrangement that would grant Google significant rights to exploit entire books, without permission of the copyright owners. Indeed, the ASA would give Google a significant advantage over competitors, rewarding it for engaging in wholesale copying of copyrighted works without permission, while releasing claims well beyond those presented in the case. Accordingly, and for the reasons more fully discussed below, the motion for final approval of the ASA is denied." ^[73]

The Wall Street Journal commented on the practical impact of this ruling saying that: "Judge Chin's ruling changes little for Google users. About two million books that are in the public domain, such as works of William Shakespeare, currently can be viewed free on the Google Books site. [...] Google Books users currently can view long previews of another two million books that are in copyright and in print, thanks to agreements between Google and tens of thousands of publishers that were separate from the legal settlement. Millions more books that are in copyright but out of print are currently available in Google Books in a shorter 'snippet view.' Had the settlement been approved, users would have been able to see longer previews and potentially buy those books."^[74]

Language issues[link]

Some European politicians and intellectuals have criticized Google's effort on "language-imperialism" grounds, arguing that because the vast majority of books proposed to be scanned are in English, it will result in disproportionate representation of natural languages in the digital world. German, Russian, and French, for instance, are popular languages in scholarship; the disproportionate online emphasis on English could shape access to historical scholarship, and, ultimately, the growth and direction of future scholarship. Among these critics is Jean-Noël Jeanneney, the former president of the Bibliothèque nationale de France.^[75]

Google Books versus Google Scholar[link]

While Google Books has digitized large numbers of journal back issues, its scans do not include the metadata required for identifying specific articles in specific issues. This has led the makers of Google Scholar to start their own program to digitize and host older journal articles (in agreement with their publishers).^[76]

Competition[link]

• Internet Archive is a non-profit which digitizes over 1000 books a day, as well as mirrors books from Google Books and other sources. As of May 2011, it hosted over 2.8 million public domain books, greater than the approximate 1 million public domain books at Google Books.^[77] Open Library, a sister project of Internet Archive, lends 80,000 scanned and purchased commercial ebooks to the visitors of 150 libraries.^[78]
• HathiTrust maintains HathiTrust Digital Library since 13 October 2008,^[79] which preserves and provides access to material scanned by Google, some of the Internet Archive books, and some scanned locally by partner institutions. As of May 2010, it includes about 6 million volumes, over 1 million of which are public domain.
• Microsoft funded the scanning of 300,000 books to create Live Search Books in late 2006. It ran until May 2008, when the project was abandoned^[80] and the books were made freely available on the Internet Archive restriction.
• Europeana links to roughly 10 million digital objects as of 2010, including video, photos, paintings, audio, maps, manuscripts, printed books, and newspapers from the past 2,000 years of European history from over 1,000 archives in the European Union.^[81][82]
• Gallica from the French National Library links to about 800,000 digitized books, newspapers, manuscripts, maps and drawings, etc. Created in 1997, the digital library continues to expand at a rate of about 5000 new documents per month. Since the end of 2008, most of the new scanned documents are available in image and text formats. Most of these documents are written in French.

See also[link]

• Google Play
• Digital library
  • Project Gutenberg
  • Wikisource
• List of digital library projects
• A9.com, Amazon.com's book search
• Book Rights Registry
• Book scanning
• Runivers
• Universal library

References[link]

External links[link]

• Google Books homepage
• Google Books Information Page
• Gallica, the digital side of the French National Library
• Europeana, the Eureopean Library
• Archive.org Scanned Books, digital library of books
• The Author's Guild et al. v. Google Inc. Timeline and progression of case
• Jeffrey Toobin; Google's Moon Shot
• Malte Herwig; "Putting The World's Books On The Web" (SPIEGEL International Edition)
• PublicDomainReprints.org – an experiment that prints public domain books from Google Books
• Digital Library Federation
• Dian Schaffhauser: Google Book Search: The Good, the Bad, & the Ugly
• Robert Darnton – Google & the Future of Books
• Jerry A. Hausman and J. Gregory Sidak – Google and the Proper Antitrust Scrutiny of Orphan Books