A new partnership between the Princeton University Library and Google soon will make approximately 1 million books in Princeton's collection available online in a searchable format.
In a move designed to open Princeton's vast resources to a broad international audience, the library will work with Google over the next six years to digitize books that are in the public domain and no longer under copyright. The partnership is part of the Google Books Library Project, which digitizes books from major libraries and makes it possible for Internet users to search the collections through Google Book Search.
"Generations of Princeton librarians have devoted themselves to building a remarkable collection of books in thousands of subjects and dozens of languages," University Librarian Karin Trainer said. "Having the portion of that collection not covered by copyright available online will make it easier for Princeton students and faculty to do research, and joining the Google partnership allows us to share our collection with researchers worldwide, a step very much in keeping with the University's unofficial motto of 'Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations.'"
One of the goals of Google's library project is to make it easier for scholars and the public to find books they would not be able to find elsewhere, Trainer added.
Digital copies of books from the Princeton collection will be fully searchable, allowing users to employ any key words they choose to search the indexes, tables of contents and full text of books. Because the books being digitized are in the public domain, users will be able to view the full text of the books and download them for leisure reading, research or printing for later reference.
"We will be working with Google in the next several months to choose the subject areas to be digitized and the timetable for the work," Trainer said. "Library staff, faculty and students will be invited to suggest which parts of our distinctive collections should be digitized."
Princeton is the 12th institution to join the Google Books Library Project. Books available in the Google Book Search also include those from collections at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the New York Public Library, the University Complutense of Madrid and the National Library of Catalonia.
