Collegiate Times

With the Internet becoming a vast channel of information and communication, the uses for the Internet have become endless.

In Jan. 2005, the famous search engine Google, announced it would be undertaking a project to digitize millions of publications from the libraries of Harvard University, Oxford University, University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, Stanford University and the New York Public Libraries.

The Google Print Project allows Google to scan published works onto the Internet, providing snippets of works, samples of works and complete works to interested searchers.

Brenda McLaughlin, communications manager of the Association of American University Press, said that there are two parts to the Google Print Project, the library program and the publishers program.

?There is the publisher side of the book program, where Google has gone to publishers and requested permission from publishers. Many of our members were excited about that possibility. The library side of the book program was where Google was taking the books and scanning them, including books that the press has not agreed to put them,? said McLaughlin.

Herb Scher, public relations director of the New York Public Library, said Google will not infringe on copyright laws because the New York Public Library has only provided material in the public domain.

?We're participating as a pilot program. We are providing a certain number of materials that are in the public domain, and it is a positive thing that Google has taken interest in our available resources,? Scher said.

University librarians at Stanford University announced the agreement with Google is open-ended because it neither targets specific collections nor specifies a minimum or maximum number of books to be digitized. Stanford is working closely with Google to continually refine the schedule and will be open to reviewing 8 million publications.

While the universities involved in the Google Library Project remain enthusiastic about digitizing their libraries, publishing companies are concerned that Google is violating copyright laws.

?They were basically taking many books from the libraries and scanning them without permission. That has been part of the program that has worried many publishers,? McLaughlin said.

Tony Sanfilippo, Penn State University Press director, said that the attempt to digitize the books will help sell electronic copies or bring out-dated publications back into print.

Though Google is scanning and providing books online without charge to the libraries or publishers, Sanfilippo said Google is making a future investment by providing and charging for available published content.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, publishing companies under the Association of American Publishers filed with a lawsuit to the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of New York under the charge that Google is infringing copyright laws to ?further its own commercial purposes.? The publishing companies include the McGraw-Hill Companies, Pearson Education, the Penguin Group, Simon & Schuster and John Wiley & Sons.