The Complutense University of Madrid Library announced today that it had joined Google’s Library Project. The two organizations will work in partnership to digitize the library’s out of copyright books – bringing some of the greatest works of Spanish literature to millions of people globally.
The Complutense University of Madrid Library is the first Spanish partner to join Google’s Library Project. Its collection includes thousands of Spanish-language public domain books, many of historic importance, as well numerous works in French, German, Latin, Italian and English.
From the works of Cervantes to Sor Juana de la Cruz, the university’s participation will further enrich Google’s multi-lingual index – bringing more books, in more languages to more people. Once the books have been digitized, it will be easy for anyone to search and then read them on Google Book Search.
Carlos Berzosa, Chancellor of the Complutense University of Madrid, said:
“Out of copyright books previously only available to people with access to Madrid’s Complutense University Library, or the money to travel, will now be accessible to everyone with an Internet connection, wherever they live. We are quite literally opening our library to the world. The opportunities for education are phenomenal and we are delighted to be working with Google on this project”.
Susan Wojcicki, Vice President of Product Management at Google, said:
“Google Book Search is part of our efforts to help organize the world’s information, making it universally accessible and useful. By making it possible to search the millions of books that exist in the world today, we hope to expand the frontiers of human knowledge – enabling more people to find more books in more languages. More than 400 million people speak Spanish worldwide, and this literature holds important cultural significance. So we are enormously excited about working with the Complutense University of Madrid”.
The following libraries are already part of Google Book Search: University of Michigan, Harvard University, Oxford University, the New York Public Library, Stanford University, and the University of California. Google is also working with the Library of Congress in a joint digitisation pilot project.
About the Complutense University of Madrid: The Complutense University of Madrid is the leading Spanish university in terms of number of students and high-level professors. With 700 years of history behind it, the university offers diverse and high-quality academics, emphasizing the importance of research and modern buildings and services.
The library of the Complutense University of Madrid is the largest Spanish university library—and only the second largest in Spain behind the National Library—in terms of size and number of books (more than 3 million). It is considered one of the most important libraries in the Spanish-speaking world. The library also holds nearly three million documents, as well as one an impressive collection of ancient texts, with works like the Hebrew Bible from the 13th century and the Libro sobre Astronomía de Alfonso X El Sabio. It also has one of the leading collections of digitised works in Europe.
About Google Book Search
Google Book Search is an historic effort to make all of the knowledge contained within the world’s books searchable online.
Content for Google Book Search comes from two sources: the Partner Program and the Library Project. Partners (typically publishers) give us their books to digitize and put online. Users are then shown a strictly limited number of book pages that are relevant to their search. If it’s of interest they can click through to the publisher’s website, or an online retailer, and buy it.
Libraries also provide us with their books to digitize. If a library book is in the public domain (out of copyright) it is shown in its entirety. If it is in copyright then users just get basic background, at most two or three snippets from the book and information about which library it is in, or where it can be bought. Google and the University of Madrid will only work to digitize out of copyright books.
