Big Ten Partners with Google on Library Scanning Project

Google Inc. announced a deal last week to digitize portions of the libraries of 12 major universities--nearly 10 million books and periodicals--as part of its book scanning project.

The deal includes the University of Chicago and the 11 universities in the Big Ten athletic conference: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Northwestern, Ohio State, Penn State, Purdue, and Wisconsin. The Committee on Institutional Cooperation, an umbrella organization that's shepherding the deal, said Google will be "consistent with copyright law" in moving forward on the project.

The Big 10 is the latest block of universities to join the scanning project. The Web search firm is already working with the University of California and Harvard University to scan portions of their libraries. However, the firm faces a lawsuit by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild over its plans to incorporate parts of copyrighted books.

U Illinois librarian Nancy Baker said the deal would enable the school to preserve some older, classical parts of its collection, volumes now more than 100 years old. "The content[s] of some books are in danger of being lost because they're 19th century materials, and [they're] on paper that isn't so good," she said in a statement. "We do want to make sure these things are both accessible and available over time."

Several other universities, including Harvard and California, already have signed up to let Google scan their libraries. But Google still faces a lawsuit by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild over its plans to incorporate parts of copyrighted books.

Read More:

About the Author

Paul McCloskey is contributing editor of Syllabus.

Featured

  • SXSW EDU

    Explore the Future of AI in Higher Ed at SXSW EDU 2025

    This March 3-6 in Austin, TX, the SXSW EDU Conference & Festival celebrates its 15th year of exploring education's most critical issues and providing a forum for creativity, innovation, and expression.

  • man working on laptop outdoors

    Digital Leadership Must-Haves for 2025: A CDO's Picks

    Now that he's more than a year and a half into his chief digital officer role at NJIT, we've asked Ed Wozencroft to reflect on his areas of concentration: What work must digital leaders "own" in 2025?

  • From Fire TV to Signage Stick: University of Utah's Digital Signage Evolution

    Jake Sorensen, who oversees sponsorship and advertising and Student Media in Auxiliary Business Development at the University of Utah, has navigated the digital signage landscape for nearly 15 years. He was managing hundreds of devices on campus that were incompatible with digital signage requirements and needed a solution that was reliable and lowered labor costs. The Amazon Signage Stick, specifically engineered for digital signage applications, gave him the stability and design functionality the University of Utah needed, along with the assurance of long-term support.

  • digital artwork of glowing, interconnected neural-like shapes on a gradient background of deep blue and vibrant purple

    Google Announces Upgrade to Flagship Gemini AI Platform, Enhancing Multimodal Capabilities

    Google has launched Gemini 2.0, designed to empower enterprise users and developers with advanced multimodal capabilities and enhanced performance.