Google Book Search Project

In 2007, the Big Ten Academic Alliance partnered with Google to digitize as many as 10 million volumes across all Big Ten Academic Alliance library systems. This project represents one of the largest cooperative ventures of its kind in higher education, one that will enable Big Ten Academic Alliance institutions to preserve a vast realm of legacy content and make material available worldwide within just a few years.

 Under the terms of this landmark agreement, Google will scan some of the most distinctive collections from Big Ten Academic Alliance libraries and their 79 million volumes. These legacy collections are known to scholars worldwide, reflecting decades of careful investment and curation to build exceptional resources for research. The Google partnership promises to open up these resources to a much broader audience, ensuring that they remain accessible and discoverable in a digital age.

Through this agreement, Google will scan and make searchable public domain works as well as copyrighted materials, in a manner consistent with copyright law. For books protected by copyright, a search will yield basic information (such as the book’s title and author’s name); at most a few lines of text related to the search; and information about book purchase or lending.  Public domain materials can be viewed, searched, or downloaded for printing in their entirety from the Google site.