UC Libraries + Google = Nerd Heaven

From the LAT

Google is keen to have access to UC's 34 million volumes from 100 libraries on 10 campuses, which is described as collectively the largest academic research library in the world. UC wants to delve more deeply into the Internet revolution with a deep-pockets partner like Google paying the costs of scanning books.

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A UC deal with Google could be announced within a month, officials said. However, the arrangement first faces close scrutiny from the UC regents and the publishing world for potential copyright issues and concerns that UC might lose out on future revenue.

Last year, a group of U.S. publishers and the Authors Guild filed suits in federal court in New York against Google, contending that scanning copyrighted books without permission is copyright infringement, even if the books are not posted online or only tiny excerpts are shown.

Allan Adler, vice president of legal and government affairs for the Assn. of American Publishers, which is backing one of the lawsuits, said he understood why the search engine giant would want to sign up UC's enormous libraries. "It would be a significant addition with the sheer volume of the materials involved," he said.

Google's university partners are not defendants in the suits and UC probably would not be either, Adler said. "But on the other hand, it is rather curious that the University of California would announce this knowing the project is under a cloud of litigation at the moment," he said.

Having spent more than a few hours in a couple different UC libraries, and impressed with the depth of the collections at the campuses I've visited, I'd say this is great news, and Google couldn't have found a better partner in this project. But, as the article points out, copyright issues still cloud the extent that this project will be allowed to reach.