About the U.Va./Google Book Library Project
The University of Virginia Library has partnered with Google Book Search to digitize and offer online access to selected books and books in the public domain from the Library’s collections. Long a pioneer in digitizing public domain works, the U.Va. Library’s aims in the project are:
• To continue the goals of our digitization project, started in 1992, which aimed to digitally preserve hundreds of thousands of public domain texts from the Library’s important collections.
• To connect students, faculty, staff, and the general public with materials by offering online access to selected books from the Library’s collection of 5.1 million books.
• To keep materials conserved and accessible by preserving digital copies.
• To aid studying and research by students, faculty, and staff through such tools as Google’s "Search Within a Book."
•To lead, as one of the world’s oldest research libraries, in digital initiatives with other Google partners.
Our six-year agreement with Google Book Project
FAQ about the U.Va./Google Book Project
U.Va. Library books digitized and available online through Google Book Search:
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1909 edition)
A Narrative of the Indian and Civil Wars in Virginia: In the Years 1675 and 1676 (1814)
Related articles:
"A Few Thoughts on the Google Books Library Project" Charles Edward Smith. EDUCAUSE Quarterly vol. 31, no. 1 (January–March 2008), pp. 10–11.
"Led by Google, Internet access to books making serious strides" (technology today) Reid Goldsborough. Community College Week. 20.10. Jan. 14, 2008.
"Google and Its Enemies; The much-hyped project to digitize 32 million books sounds like a good idea. Why are so many people taking shots at it?" Jonathan V. Last. The Weekly Standard 13.13. Dec. 10, 2007.
"Google's Book Search: Searching the World of Books" (Google Inc.) Jim Gerber. ForeWord. July-August 2007.
"Google's Moon Shot" Jeffrey Toobin. The New Yorker 82.47. Feb. 5, 2007.
Using Google Book Search:
"Since 1992, the U.Va. Library has been making public domain works freely available online. Scholars tell us that we have made it possible to ask new questions because these works are available digitally. With Google, we will be able to offer access to many more texts. For example, 18th- and 19th-century works that are rarely found can be discovered by new audiences."
- Karin Wittenborg, University Librarian
Let us know what you think. Send feedback on U.Va./Google Book Search.