Microsoft Corp. today announced two key advances in Windows Live(TM) Book Search, a service that will enable Web searchers to find answers from authoritative, trusted book content. The addition of two new participants, the University of California and the University of Toronto libraries, will result in an addition of digitized material, primarily out-of-copyright books, from these two institutions to the Windows Live Book Search service. Also, the recently debuted Windows Live Books Publisher Program enables publishers to submit in-copyright material to become part of Windows Live Book Search....
With collections totaling more than 34 million volumes in the more than 100 libraries on its 10 campuses, the University of California library is the largest research and academic library in the world. In addition, the University of Toronto’s library network, the largest in Canada, has more than 15 million holdings and is one of the top-four research libraries in North America. These important collections will greatly expand the depth and breadth of content available through Windows Live Book Search....
With the support of the Open Content Alliance (OCA), publicly available print materials in UC and U of T libraries will be scanned, digitized and indexed to make them readily accessible to customers. OCA also works with copyright holders to legally scan protected materials.
"This announcement reflects the growing momentum of OCA," said Brewster Kahle, director of the Internet Archive, where OCA resides. "It is both encouraging and helpful to have Microsoft as an anchor in this effort to make public domain material freely available to consumers on the Internet."...
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/09/2006 04:17:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
