Libraries Send First Book Shipment to Google

First, there has been so much I have wanted to tell you about! A million apologies for not posting in awhile--more coming soon. I promise!

I wanted to share this news with you now. Penn State Live recently posted a news item (full article) about the Penn State University Libraries' involvement in helping to develop Google Book Search:

"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."

This is exciting news for Penn State Libraries users! When complete, it will allow patrons to search the contents, or "full text," of many of our books and help faculty, staff, and students find the books most relevant to their research more quickly. Books that have been sent to Google for digitization will display "Being digitized-Click here to request via Interlibrary Loan" and include a link to the Interlibrary Loan request form in ILLiad.

Obtaining a copy from another library until our copy is returned is simple! Once you establish an account in ILLiad, just click on the link and the request form will be completed for you. Then, simply review and submit. Items typically arrive within one week.

See how Google Books is already integrated into our catalog, The CAT: New in The CAT: Google Book Preview and Cover Art

Related: 12-University Consortium Joins Google Digitization Project and Photo Album