Today, Stanford University threw its hat into the ring for Google by expanding an earlier agreement with the search giant and agreeing to digitize the University’s library. The move comes amidst legal controversy over the Google Book Search engine. As you may know, Google Book Search is currently embroiled in a mess of legal issues that arose a few years back when book authors, book publishers, the Author’s Guild and the Association of American publishers filed a pair of class-action lawsuits claiming that the service encroached on their intellectual property. An agreement was reached in 2008 that comprised these five major points explicating what search should include: – More access to out-of-print and hard to find books. – Additional ways to purchase copyrighted books and materials. – A means for educational institutions such as colleges and universities to subscribe to entire collections. – Free access from US libraries. – Compensation and control for authors and publishers.

Original Source of Stanford Offers Up Millions of Books in Support of Google Book Search