Texas joins Google project
As reported by the Austin Statesman, UT is apparently joining the Google digitization project (may require registration). I’d heard rumors that this was going to happen for quite awhile, but now it’s confirmed, and it looks like President Powers thinks it’s a good idea. I hope to find out more from people who work there soon. The University Libraries has committed to many digital projects recently. On one hand, it’s good that the University is doing some interesting things with digital preservation and similar projects; on the other, I really don’t think that all print materials can be considered “legacy collections,” as I’ve heard some refer to them. As for the Google participation, we’ll need to see what that means for us…
Update: UT’s Announcement
Daniel Brandt said,
January 20, 2007 @ 4:10 pm
Do you have a copy of the contract between UT Austin and Google? It is probably marked “confidential” by Google, but I got Google’s contracts by using state freedom of information laws in Michigan and California. I’ve posted these and they are linked from the top of http://www.google-watch.org/modify.html
You will note after reading these two contracts that UM and UC are severly limited as to what they are allowed to do with their copies of the scanned material. This includes both the material that is under copyright, as well as the material that is in the public domain.
I suspect the same situation is true with the UT Austin contract. If the University won’t give it to you immediately, you can file a request under the Texas Public Information Act.