“And Google has embarked on an ambitious secret effort known as Project Ocean, according to a person involved with the operation. With the cooperation of Stanford University, the company now plans to digitize the entire collection of the vast Stanford Library published before 1923, which is no longer limited by copyright restrictions. The project could add millions of digitized books that would be available exclusively via Google. … “

> From NYTimes “The Coming Search Wars” found via Nathan Newman’s blog.

The University Library here at Michigan has been involved in an ongoing digitization of their collections, although I’m not aware of anything quite as comprehensive as “Project Ocean.” And although I don’t know much about it, the website of the “University of Michigan Digital Library Project” seems interesting. In this area, the University Library is also planning to replace the aging MIRLYN, and has just launched a service called SFX which promises to make it easier to find the full-text of articles avaliable in the library’s many databases and in general make research easier.

Author: Rob