Cornell Joins Microsoft Book Search
-- Library Journal, 10/25/2006
The Cornell University Libraries has agreed to a long-term partnership with Microsoft to digitize “a significant number” of its books and to put the volumes online using Microsoft’s Live Book Search service. The news comes shortly after Google Book Search announced it had added the University of Wisconsin to its list of partners, and on the eve of a meeting between members of the Open Content Alliance (OCA) in San Francisco. For Cornell and Microsoft, the initiative will focus on works already in the public domain, teaming up with Kirtas Technologies to scan and digitize up to 2400 pages per hour. Cornell librarians will play “a key role” in everything from book selection to setting quality standards for the digitized materials. In return for Cornell’s participation, Microsoft—as with the Google plan—will give the library digital images of all the materials.
