Google putting books online, especially old rare ones - FREE

[yonglan]

OK, it's not utopian, but it sounds better than not seeing these books at all as is the case for most of us.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62251-2004Dec13.html

Five prestigious university and public libraries have reached agreement with Google Inc. to digitize millions of volumes in their collections and make portions of the text available for free to computer users online, the search giant plans to announce today.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=9003329

At the same time, the nonprofit internet Archive said libraries from five countries, including China and India, have agreed to add one million digitized books to its archive, with some 70,000 expected to be online by next April.

Google says it plans to scan millions of books from Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Michigan and the New York Public Library to make them available through its search engine.