About 100,000 books in the British Library are going to be scanned and put online by software giant Microsoft.
The books, which are out of copyright, will be digitised from 2006 and put online as part of Microsoft's book search service next year.
Microsoft is already working with the Open Content Alliance (OCA), set up by the Internet Archive, to put an initial 150,000 works online.
A separate global digital library plan by Google is also under way.
The search giant is spending $200m (£110m) to create a digital archive of millions of books from four top US libraries. It is also digitising out-of-copyright books from the UK's Oxford University.
The Microsoft deal means that 25 million pages from the British Library's collections will be put online and made searchable for anyone. More works will be scanned in the future.
"This is great news for research and scholarship and will give unparalleled access to our vast collections to people all over the world: they will be available to anyone, anywhere and at anytime," said British Library chief executive Lynne Brindley.
Teething problems
Both the OCA, which is also backed by Yahoo, and Google want to digitise the world's books and other works to make them searchable and accessible to anyone online.
But Google's plans have come under fire from the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild which have both filed legal action for copyright infringement.
Google halted its plans because of the action, but said it was restarting them this week.
Google and the OCA are initially concentrating on digitising books and works that are out of copyright and in the public domain in order to quell any further copyright fears.
But Google said it still planned to scan newer books that are in print and under copyright protection at a later stage.
Microsoft has been working with the British Library already, giving infrastructure tools and advice for its National Digital Library plan, which was launched in June.
The Digital Object Management (DOM) system, will help the library store works long term, preserve them, and allow access to e-journals, e-books and CD-ROMs.
#2. "RE: Microsoft scans British Library" In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 0)
Once books were hand written and only a handful if the worlds population, mainly clerics could access them, let alone possess one. About 650 years ago Gutenberg invented printing and books became available to more people. Increasingly we are approaching a time when all human knowledge will be at everyones fingertips. The need will be for some method of finding the information you need, and that is the service Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo are trying to provide. I think probably 80% of this information is in the public domain and that should keep everybody busy for a long time.
Books will never disappear, there will always be people who will want them, and the better educated they are, the more people there will be buying books. A computer is a poor substitute for having a real book in your hands. I have computers, but the walls of my home are lined with books.
#3. "RE: Microsoft scans British Library" In response to Shelly (Reply # 2) Sun Nov-06-05 02:36 PM by _Chewy_
Well no one ever said they were going away but Yes, I too enjoy a book now & then. Reading a famous poem by Walt Whitman on my computer screen is not the same thing as picking up one his books and reading it in the comfort of my home. I also recently picked up a copy of VBA for Dummies book becaused i've enjoyed learning little bits here & there, but wanted to learn it in a comprehensive manner rather than reading a few examples of code some guys website. Even by searching on Google, I could not find everything that this book covers. Somethings are not very condusive to learning by viewing tid bits of information here & there.
That being said, I think there are some wonderful things to be said about this project by MS & Google. I'm thinking about the millions of people who are stuck to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. Think of much of a PITA it is for them to get in a car and get down to the local (or campus) library to look up all this information.
#5. "RE: Microsoft scans British Library" In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 0)
I wonder how the scanning is done, physically I mean. I've copied pages of books - invariably some of the text would be distorted despite my best efforts to flatten the book. Flattening books is probably officially frowned upon by every library. So how is it done? And it is quite time consuming even copying a few pages.
Scanning an entire library has got to be the most boring, tedious job ever - even if it isn't done one or two pages at a time. It's got to be daunting for the individual who has to do it. LOL
#7. "RE: Microsoft scans British Library" In response to _Chewy_ (Reply # 0)
Re the Google project, it's not good for everybody.
"Google today found itself accused of damaging the fundraising efforts of a London children's hospital which has relied for more than 75 years on royalities from J M Barrie's Peter Pan.
The Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity is angry that Google's policy of making literature freely available online will hit the hospital's finances hard, potentially costing it millions of pounds.
Barrie donated all British royalties and performing rights from the work, including popular stage version widely performed at Christmas time, to the hospital in 1929. Barrie claimed that Peter Pan had been a patient at the hospital as a baby.
In 1988, before copyright in the book, Peter Pan, expired, Parliament passed an amendment to the Copyright Act that extended Great Ormond Street's rights to Peter Pan earnings in the UK in perpetuity...."
