The University of California, University of Michigan, and Stanford University announced today their joint support for the outstanding public benefits made possible through the proposed settlement agreement submitted to the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York by Google Inc. and plaintiffs the Authors Guild, Inc. et al.
The proposed settlement will expand access to books in the Google Book Search project. Google Book Search is an ambitious project to digitize the print collections of the world's greatest libraries and make them searchable via the Internet. The project will make it possible for libraries to preserve millions of books and assure numerous other public and academic benefits.
"It will now be possible, even easy, for anyone to access these great collections from anywhere in the United States," said University of Michigan's Paul Courant, university librarian and Harold T. Shapiro Collegiate Professor of Public Policy. "This is an extraordinary accomplishment."
[Read the full U-M press release]