Google Scan Plan Expands, Gaining the 12 CIC Universities

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 6/6/2007

Google and the 12 universities in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) announced today that they have entered into an agreement to digitize up to 10 million bound volumes. In one swoop, the deal represents a two-thirds jump in the number of libraries and universities participating worldwide in the Google Books Library Project, from 15 to 25. Under the agreement, Google will digitize "significant portions from CIC library general collections," with each university to contribute "collection areas of particular strength and distinction." The announcement comes just days after the BookExpo America conference in New York, where some publishers expressed their continuing concerns, one rather creatively, with Google’s Library scan plan.

The digitization initiative will include both public domain and in-copyright materials, said Wendy Pradt Lougee, University Librarian at the University of Minnesota and member of the six-person team that negotiated the agreement with Google. As per its policy, Google will only make available "snippets" of in-copyright materials through its search engine. Public domain materials can be viewed, searched, or downloaded for printing in their entirety.

In addition, Lougee said that, as a part of the agreement, the consortium will be able to create a "shared digital repository" that will enable CIC librarians to access the full content and "collectively archive and manage" as many as five million public domain works held across the CIC libraries. Lougee said the agreement allows for "library digitization at a scale and scope that would not be possible within the limited means available to the individual universities."

Two members of the CIC had already signed deal with Google, which is scanning the entire collection of the University of Michigan (UM), up to seven million volumes, and scanning select, public domain titles from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-M). CIC officials said the 10 million volumes to be scanned under the new agreement do not include the volumes already being digitized at UM and UW-M. The CIC includes the University of Minnesota, University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, and the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.