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Books around the world go online

Google has announced plans to become a catalogue and digital library for world literature.

The information finding service plans to scan pages from books in the public domain of five of the world's most important academic institutions, and then make them available for search and reading online.

The scheme includes the full libraries of Michigan and Stanford universities, as well as archives at Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library.

Online pages from scanned books will not have adverts but will have links to an online store, Google said.

Lifelong learning

Susan Wojcicki, director of product management at Google, said: ‘The goal of the project is to unlock the wealth of information that is offline and bring it online.’

There will also be links to public libraries so that the books can be borrowed. Google will not be paid for providing for the links.

Reg Carr, Director of Oxford University Library Services, said ‘Making the wealth of knowledge accumulated in the Bodleian Library's historic collections accessible to as many people as possible is at the heart of Oxford University's commitment to lifelong learning. Oxford is therefore proud to be part of this effort to make information available to everyone who might benefit from it.’

The plan is long-term: for instance, it will take six years to digitise the full collection at Michigan, which contains seven million volumes.