UC to test new Google software that helps provide greater online access to digitized books
Date: 2008-03-13
Contact: Patricia Martin, California Digital Library
Phone: (510) 287-3848
Email: patricia.martin@ucop.edu
WHAT: The University of California is testing new Google software today (March 13) that will allow greater access to digitized content available online.

The new software will allow UC's California Digital Library to embed online access to the mass digitized content from within Melyvl, the university's systemwide catalog, significantly enhancing a user's ability to evaluate the content and access it. Users can see reviews, snippets, tables of contents or the entire scanned book. This saves time and eliminates the need to go to Google Book Search to do research.

The new prototype is an exciting opportunity for CDL because it allows UC to integrate Google Book Search directly into Melvyl. With the new prototype version of Melvyl, users will be able to freely view, browse and read UC's public domain books, including many of the treasures in the libraries' historic and special collections, as well as any books digitized by Google's wide array of partners.

For books protected by copyright, users will see basic background (such as the book's title and the author's name), information about where they can borrow or buy the book, and will be able to search within the book to evaluate it. For books without copyright restrictions, users can view and download the entire book. In some cases, there is extended information available about the book such as reviews, references from Web pages and maps of places mentioned in the book.

The Melvyl prototype test will run several months, and if successful, will become a regular part of Melvyl. Anyone using the Melvyl prototype will have access to the digitized content featuring hundreds of thousands of books that UC has provided to Google, as well as those from other content provider partners.

BACKGROUND: The UC libraries have assembled one of the largest digital research libraries in the world, including 23,000 journals, 500,000 digital images and numerous digital archives. UC was one of the early partners in the Google Books Library Project, which was launched in December 2004 to digitize books drawn from libraries around the world including the New York Public Library and Harvard University.

WHEN: Thursday, March 13, 2008

WHERE: The California Digital Library will conduct this project from its offices at 20th Street in Oakland.

For more information: www.cdlib.org