Statement of Use

About the Google Books Library Project

The Google Books Library Project was announced in December 2004. The institutions working on the project with Google are the libraries at Harvard, Oxford, Stanford, the University of California, the University of Michigan, the University of Texas-Austin, the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University Complutense of Madrid, and the New York Public Library and the National Library of Catalonia. The Princeton University Library signed an agreement to become the twelfth Google partner in December 2006.

As a result of the agreement, Google will digitize books from Princeton’s collections and make them searchable on the Google Book Search website (http://books.google.com). Princeton will receive a digital copy of every book scanned and will, in the coming months, decide the various uses of the received copies.

Benefits to the Princeton University community and beyond

The digitization of portions of the Library's collections will open Princeton's vast resources to a broad international audience.

The Princeton collections contain a remarkable range of books in thousands of subjects and dozens of languages. Increasing the accessibility of books no longer under copyright by offering digital copies online will make it easier for Princeton students and faculty to conduct research. The online medium also allows the University to share its collection with researchers worldwide, a step very much in keeping with the University's unofficial motto of "Princeton in the nation's service and in the service of all nations."

Number of books that will be scanned

The Library will work with Google over the next six years to digitize approximately 1 million books that are in the public domain and no longer under copyright.

Selection criteria for the books to be scanned

Google and the Library are working together to develop selection criteria. Library staff, faculty and students will be invited to suggest which portions of the Library's vast collections should be digitized.

How the digitized books will be used

Only books in the public domain, and therefore no longer subject to copyright law, will be scanned.

Digitizing books in Princeton's collection will make it easier for scholars and the public to find books they would not be able to find elsewhere, including books no longer in print.

Digital copies of books from the Princeton collection will be fully searchable, allowing users to employ any key words they choose to search the indexes, tables of contents and full text of books. Because the books being digitized are in the public domain, users will be able to view the full text of the books and download them for leisure reading, research or printing for later reference