UW-Madison Adding To Google Library Base
The other night, I was sitting in the dungeon of Wendt Library doing some Linear Algebra homework, and I saw a row of wooden crates filled with books, ready to be shipped off to somewhere. I looked closer and saw that there was a sheet on the side of the crate that said, "shipping to Google, 4/3/07." I did some more investigating online and found out that UW-Madison is participating in the Google Library Project.
With the Google Library Project, Google is trying to scan all of the literature in the world in order to index it and make it easily searchable and accessible. There have been many cries of copyright infringement, and Google has been to court many times over this project. However, they are still pushing forward. They are trying to index almost every book ever written, so you will be able to search for a book and Google will then suggest which library to go to in order to check it out. I must say it beats the hell out of a card catalog, sorry mom. I am excited to see that Google is interested in all the engineering books in Wendt Library.
In my EPD 155 class freshman year, I remember a bit of information that went something like, over 80% of the worlds data is still on paper, with only 20% online. This move by Google to capture all the data that is on paper and make it digital is genius. Google is the king of data and will be for a long time, they have found and are still exploring ways to mine data and index it and make it readily available to all those who are seeking it. That is why Google is such a power house when it comes to the internet: they have found their niche and are now expanding on it at tremendous speeds. All I gotta say is, watch out.
Technorati Tags: UW Madison, Google, Library Base,
Amanda Werhane posted on 03/21/2007 @ 3:56:15 pm
We're glad you're excited by our partnership with Google! Wendt posted this article on our blog about the project - http://wendt-library.blogspot.com/2006/12/uw-joins-google-books-digitization.html