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Google to digitize libraries of U of M, other Big Ten schools
Jesse Miller knows books.
"[I'm] just trying to read as much as I can in the next few weeks," he said in the University of Minnesota library on Wednesday.
And like most students at the University, the pre-med student also knows books and technology are becoming one.
"I can vouch for myself and a lot of kids that go to school, it makes it way easier to have things available on a computer."
Now Jesse will have even more available on-line.
Big Ten Conference schools will digitize select collections in each of the university's libraries -- up to 10 million volumes -- as part of Google Inc.'s book-scanning project.
The partnership will speed up a digitization process that might have taken hundreds of years, school officials said in announcing the agreement Wednesday. It will result in a shared digital repository that faculty, students and the public can access quickly.
"It enforces and reinforces our position as a world class university," said University of Minnesota Provost Thomas Sullivan.
The agreement covers Google and the 12 schools on the Committee on Institutional Cooperation -- the academic arm of the Big Ten Conference.
Besides the University of Minnesota, schools on the committee include the 10 other Big Ten schools affiliated through athletics -- Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue and Wisconsin -- plus the University of Chicago.
Under the six-year agreement, with option to renew, Google will fund the digitization and each CIC institution will cover the costs of preparing the books for digitization. The CIC said libraries have estimated the costs of digitization at about $60 per volume meaning the project's value to Minnesota -- which will provide up to 1 million volumes for scanning -- could reach $60 million.
"There is a tremendous value to the University of Minnesota," Sullivan said.
Costs to the university, about $150,000 each year, will involve current employees retrieving and preparing the books for shipping, spokeswoman Patty Mattern said.
Books chosen for scanning will be from each university's strong and distinct collection areas. Contributions from the University of Minnesota, for instance, could include Scandinavian history, literature and culture, forestry, beekeeping and medicine. The universities will offer suggestions and Google will make sure there's no duplication, Mattern said.
"This partnership allows for library digitization at a scale and scope that would not be possible within the limited means available to the individual universities," said Wendy Pradt Lougee, University of Minnesota librarian.
The committee said Google will scan and make searchable materials "in a manner consistent with copyright law." Google generally makes available the full text of books that are a part of the public domain and limited portions of copyrighted books.
The consortium will also create what they said was a first-of-its-kind online repository to collectively archive and manage the full content of public domain works scanned by Google within the schools' libraries.
Wisconsin and Michigan already have similar agreements with Google as part of group of university libraries worldwide that also includes Harvard, Stanford and Oxford universities. The consortium's agreement does not supersede the individual school agreements, school officials said.
By Genaro C. Armas, Associated Press Writer
AP writer Karren Mills contributed to this report from Minneapolis.
(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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