They say an elephant never forgets. A slew of nationwide libraries intend to act as that elephant when it comes to Google's new digitized archives for newspapers and books. The libraries are working together to create what amounts to a backup of the digital library that Google is creating, publicly accessible of course. The project has been labeled the Hathi Trust, the word Hathi is Hindi for "elephant", an animal known throughout history to "never forget".
The project includes the libraries of 12 Midwestern universities acting together, and encouraging others to join forces with them. Some of the participating universities are The University of Michigan, The University of Iowa, The University of Illinois, and the 11 libraries that comprise the University of California's library system.
Google has been scanning the collections and contents of several large libraries for its Google Books Library Project to give internet users access to public domain texts and snippets of copyrighted works. Google provides a copy of each digitized book for the library it used to obtain it.
Hathi Trust intends to do the same, digitizing over 2 million volumes already today. Hathi Trust is also including hard to find and fragile books to ensure they stand the test of time. A majority of the libraries involved in the Hathi Trust project are in agreement to combine all digitized books and news into one giant online accessible database; still offering snippets of copyrighted works. It is a beast of a move for the information technology realm. News brought to you by Blue Interactive Agency, your online interactive marketing source in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
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