Internet search services provider Google, Inc., US, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison have announced an agreement to expand access to an array of public and historical books and documents from over 7.2 million holdings at the UW-Madison Libraries and the Wisconsin Historical Society Library. The combined library collections of UW-Madison and the Wisconsin Historical Society comprise one of the largest collections of documents and historical materials found in the US.
Initially, the Wisconsin project will focus on library collections that are free of copyright restrictions. The project is expected to provide easy public access to hundreds of books held by the two institutions. In addition to public documents, the UW-Madison digitising program will target other high-use collections, which includes history of medicine, patents and discoveries, history of engineering, early publications of scientific societies, American and Wisconsin history, genealogical materials, Wisconsin state documents, decorative arts, visual/material culture, maps and sheet music.
The university is the eighth library to join Google's book search project. Other libraries that are currently working with Google to digitise portions of their collections include Harvard, Michigan, New York Public Library, Oxford, Stanford, the University of California system, and, most recently, Madrid's Complutense University. The Library of Congress is also conducting a pilot project with Google.
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