Penn State sends first Google shipment

University Park, Pa. -- Penn State University Libraries is sending its first shipment of books to Google this month to be digitized as part of the CIC/Google Book Search project. Among the volumes are Penn State's distinctive English and American literature collections. When complete, the multi-year project will have digitized upwards of 10 million books from the collections of the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), the academic arm of the Big Ten Conference.

The project, Google Book Search, is digitizing books from publisher and library partners to make them discoverable and accessible online. For out-of-copyright books in the public domain, users will have access to the full text of the book online. For books still in copyright, the Google Book Search will enable users to obtain bibliographic information so they may find the actual texts at the library or bookstore. In some cases, portions of the text will also be available online. Digital copies will also be available in HathiTrust, the cooperative shared digital repository being developed at the University of Michigan. Penn State, as a member of the CIC, is a partner in this venture.

Lisa German, assistant dean for technical and collections services, explains that, "this initiative supports our strategic planning goals of accelerating the transition to a digital collection and achieving our goals through partnership and collaboration. To this end, selected books from all of Penn State's campuses will be scanned and added to the Google database."

According to Nancy L. Eaton, dean of the University Libraries and scholarly communication, "Having books accessible digitally via Google Book Search and preserved in the HathiTrust will lead to new service possibilities and greater accessibility to our tremendous collections."

For more information on the project, contact Lisa German at (814) 863-5448 or Ann Snowman at (814) 865-9697.