Libraries and Google Amend Book Search Agreement

July 9, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas — The University of Texas Libraries announces an amendment of its agreement with Google Inc. to create digital copies of books from the Libraries' collections.

The original agreement—which assures discovery, preservation and access to extraordinary resources at The University of Texas at Austin—has been amended to reflect changes made possible by Google's pending settlement with authors and publishers groups.

"The new agreement between the University of Texas Libraries and Google insures that our participation in the project will fulfill our initial primary goals of discovery, preservation and access," says Vice Provost and Libraries Director Fred Heath. "Additional provisions will enhance local access while allowing for the introduction of rich materials from our collections to a broad audience."

The Libraries' partnership with Google is part of the Google Books Library Project, started in December 2004, to digitize volumes drawn from the collections of respected institutions around the globe, including the University of Michigan, Stanford University, Oxford University, the New York Public Library and more. Through this historic collaboration, millions of books from the collections of the University of Texas Libraries and other partner institutions will be discoverable online.

"As the university's Commission of 125 has noted, the citizens of Texas expect our flagship university to 'actively address pressing public problems of Texas, the nation, and the world,'" says Heath. "In this age of rapidly expanding information resources, it is essential that the university leverage the reach of the Internet to make its collections more readily available to students, faculty and citizens—regardless of their location."

Particular materials from collections at the Libraries—especially items from the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection—are now available in varying amounts, depending on copyright status, through Google Book Search. Under the settlement, public domain works will still be available in their full text and millions of in-copyright, out-of-print works will be available to be previewed and accessed online by readers. The subscription program proposed by the settlement will provide for subscriber institutions to allow their students and patrons to access the full texts of all the works included in the subscription database.

For more information, visit the University of Texas Libraries-Google Digitization Program online.

For more information, contact: Travis Willmann, University of Texas Libraries, 512 495 4644.