Google Book Search Partnership (June 2007)
Big
Ten Academic Alliance members partneried with Google to digitize
millions of bound volumes in their library collections. This is an
important step to preserve the libraries' print legacy collections, and
to provide broader present-day and future users with in-depth access to
historically significant print resources. The initiative preserves
in digital form deteriorating 19th century books included in this
project, make historic collections more accessible to scholars, and make
the ideas and references within books more discoverable through
computerized "search and retrieve" capabilities.
This partnership allows for library digitization at a scale and scope that would not
be possible with the limited means available to individual universities.
This partnership will allow the universities to digitize collections
that would have taken hundreds of years and many millions of dollars.
Beyond the scope and speed of digitization made possible by this
Agreement, the libraries' intention is to build a shared digital
repository to house public domain materials is a ground-breaking
collaboration. The repository will allow faculty, students and the
broader public to immediately access the full content of all member
universities' rich array of public domain holdings digitized under the
Agreement.
The Big Ten Academic Alliance has been a national model
of inter-university collaboration for more than 50 years. The
consortium's member universities believe the BTAA library digitization
initiative is an example of the kinds of cooperation--both among peers
and with outside parties--needed for higher education to remain strong
and relevant in the future. Leading universities will operate
effectively in a common virtual environment; institutions will continue
to develop individual core competencies but will also leverage their
assets collectively; and universities will seek out innovative
partnerships with outside entities to achieve shared goals.
