Google: On-line Libraries

Google has a plan: to put books online... ALL books! They will start scanning books at the University of Michigan and plan on completing the project on about 6 years. They also plan projects at Harvard, Stanford, and The New York Public Library. The cost? About $10/book for about 15 million books. Look for Amazon and Yahoo to get in on the action, allowing people to view the books with a few advertisements strategically placed. Stay tuned folks.

Here is an excerpt from the New York Times article:

"... Google, the operator of the world's most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation's leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web..."

It turns out that U of Michigan had already started their own project. However, it would cost a lot money, and at the rate they were doing it, it would take 1,600 years, yeah, 1,600! If you want to read about what the locals think, read their article here.