Google Books
In a way, Google Books is the original idea that launched Google. According to Google’s own official history of the project, “In 1996, Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page were graduate computer science students working on a research project . . . Their goal was to make digital libraries work, and their big idea was . . . a ‘web crawler’ to index the books’ content and analyze the connections between them”
By 2004 the technical challenges of scanning millions of books without damaging them had been overcome and Google entered into a formal agreement to scan the public domain content of Oxford University’s Bodleian library. Partnerships followed with Harvard, the University of Michigan, the New York Public Library, Oxford and Stanford. Today the list of worldwide Library Partners continues to grow.
The Google Books Project uses special book scanners and optical character recognition to create a searchable digital library. The project has drawn criticisms and controversies relating to copyright infringement, but a settlement is in the works. Most recently Google has announced plans to open an online book store called Google Editions.
So search Google Books today and see what it has to offer!
More about the Google Books Project (from PBS NEWSHOUR, Dec. 2009):