Google has announced an agreement with Stanford University, The University of Michigan, Harvard University, Oxford University and New York Public Library to scan their library collections and make them available online. The venture, expected to take several years to complete, will significantly increase Google’s current database of 8 million web pages. It includes the full libraries of Stanford and Michigan (15 million books in total) plus limited collections from Oxford, Harvard and the New York Public Library.

The project may signal the beginning of the end for the traditional library, at least according to those involved: “This is the day the world changes,” said John Wilkin, a University of Michigan librarian working with Google. The online pages will not have advertising, but will be linked to online bookstores such as Amazon, as well as Google’s own shopping site, Froogle. Around 90% of the books are out of print, minimising the impact on publishers. Google, which is meeting the full cost of the project, refused to reveal the process by which the books are to be scanned, saying only that the books will remain undamaged.

There are, however, legal restraints. Books published before 1923 are no longer under copyright protection and will be made available in their entirety - for those published later, Google must request the publisher’s permission on an individual basis, and, if permission is not forthcoming, will be limited to providing brief extracts and the book’s bibliography.