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Google To Digitize Much of Harvard's Library

Posted by timothy on from the that's-a-lot-of-library dept.

FJCsar writes "According to an e-mail sent today to Harvard students, Google will collaborate with Harvard's libraries on a pilot project to digitize a substantial number of the 15 million volumes held in the University's extensive library system, which is second only to the Library of Congress in the number of volumes it contains. Google will provide online access to the full text of those works that are in the public domain. In related agreements, Google will launch similar projects with Oxford, Stanford, the University of Michigan, and the New York Public Library. As of 9 am on December 14, a FAQ detailing the Harvard pilot program with Google will be available at hul.harvard.edu."

19 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. ads by clovercase · · Score: 5, Funny

    will there be ads for particle accelerators, scanning tunneling microscopes and tokamaks in the margins?

    1. Re:ads by IntelliTubbie · · Score: 5, Funny

      will there be ads for particle accelerators, scanning tunneling microscopes and tokamaks in the margins?

      Yes, but it'll be mixed in with ads for V14gr4, male "enhancement", and Nigerian wealth opportunities. When the scientists complain, the humanities faculty will protest that spam is a perfectly valid epistemology, and that the scientists' attempt to impose an orthodoxy of "truth" in advertising is simply a power grab to extend Western, white male hegemony. At which point, the scientists will defect to MIT's library down the street.

      Cheers,
      IT

      --

      Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

    2. Re:ads by tsm_sf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, Theodoric of York has always held himself in pretty high esteem.

      --
      Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
  2. Google Cars by Zilverfire · · Score: 2, Funny

    Google is diversifying extravagently, pretty soon all of us geeks will be driving google cars that can cross reference the library of congress

    --
    "Could you put that in a memo entitled, SHIT I ALREADY KNOW!" - Sarge
    1. Re:Google Cars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      What is this 'outside' of which you speak?

  3. Re:Not Just Harvard by BizidyDizidy · · Score: 4, Funny

    Also according to the summary, Einstein.

    --
    The safest way to approach lava is to have another person with you and he goes first.
  4. hah by usernotfound · · Score: 1, Funny

    Doesn't matter if they do Purdue's, I think we have the 11th worst library in the Big10. I already use Google for my papers, anyways.

    --
    You call it excessive, I call it ambitious.
  5. So... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    If I download a book, when do I have to upload it again? What is the late fee if I forget?

  6. Google to cache the Universe by sjrstory · · Score: 3, Funny

    Seeing as Google cached the entire Internet (the last page of the Internet can be seen here): http://www.google.ca/search?q=cache:dQrQDn0dHW8J:w ww.1112.net/lastpage.html+the+end+of+the+Internet& hl=en&client=firefox-a Google is now looking to cache everything else in the Universe :)

  7. 15 million volumes? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    Please, give me the the values in standard metrics, like Libraries of Congress!

    1. Re:15 million volumes? by HoneyBunchesOfGoats · · Score: 2, Funny

      From Fascinating Facts About the Library of Congress:

      The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, with nearly 128 million items on approximately 530 miles of bookshelves. The collections include more than 29 million books and other printed materials, 2.7 million recordings, 12 million photographs, 4.8 million maps, 5 million music items and 57 million manuscripts.

      So to answer your question, it's about 0.52 LoC if you count only the books. :)

    2. Re:15 million volumes? by commodoresloat · · Score: 4, Funny
      The British Library (www.bl.uk) has 150 million items

      He means just books and such. It's not fair counting umbrellas.

    3. Re:15 million volumes? by clambake · · Score: 2, Funny

      The British Library (www.bl.uk) has 150 million items (but fewer bookshelves) so the claim of "largest" is a bit dubious.

      For /. readers 1 BL = 1.17 LoC

      Sorry, I still don't understand... Could you express that in terms of how man shuttle explosions would be required to completely destroy one BL?

  8. Yeah but Harvard? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Everyone knows that Harvard sucks.

  9. Do no evil. by nels_tomlinson · · Score: 4, Funny
    Their corporate motto is ``do no evil'', and we've all applauded that, but this is such a great thing that I think we could give them a pass on at least one evil act.

    Maybe they could do something really evil to Microsoft, and then we could say: ``Well, you digitized Harvard's library, so we'll let it pass this time.''

    --
    See what I've been reading.
  10. Re:Are these volumes stored as text or pictures? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    RTFA, smartass. The article clearly points out that they will indeed be burning the books after digitization and the librarians will be executed. The buildings will then be sold to Walmart. Google ads (including, rather surprisingly, pornographic ones) will be placed on each non-searchable, unindexed Flash-based web page and all chapter headers will blink. Like George Bush's web site, the pages will not be viewable from foreign countries and a permanent centralized record will be maintained of all user IPs at the Dept. of Homeland Security.

  11. Re:Nice! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    or Cather on the Rye
    You're not the spell checker, huh?

  12. Re:michigan even worse?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Wow... you found the internet, congratulations

  13. Re:Both Images & Uncorrected OCR should be ava by drooling-dog · · Score: 2, Funny
    For an example, see books at University of Michigan's Making of America (MoA) Exhibit, which has thousands of 19th century books and periodicals available.

    I see they've recently added the complete run of the Journal of the U.S. Association of Charcoal Iron Workers. If I'd known that, I could've saved a bundle on gift subscriptions...