Tech News
Digital library project boasts more than 1.5 million books
By Stevie Smith
Nov 28, 2007, 11:00 GMT

An ambitious technology project launched almost 10 years ago by computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University finally appears to be bearing the fruits of their considerable labour.

Specifically, the university team has been attempting to transfer the entire published works of mankind into an online digital format library, while also providing completely free access to the wealth of invaluable knowledge spread across its numerous languages.

According to an Associated Press report, the ‘Million Book Project’ has this week surpassed the lofty content figure written boldly through its title with in excess of 1.5 million books now having been scanned into the ‘Universal Digital Library.’

Project leader Raj Reddy, a computer science and robotics professor at Carnegie Mellon, has outlined that anyone with Internet access get easily view the collection of digitized books, which is now able to compete with the content of "a large university library."

In terms of what’s on offer in the Universal Library, approximately 750,000 entries are out of copyright or have been added with the prior consent of the existing copyright holder. While a great many copy-protected excerpts are also available for viewing through the library, the project team hopes that complete works will eventually be scanned for inclusion too.

Of course, the contents of the Universal Library are information based; it’s highly unlikely that online visitors looking to catch a glimpse of the latest Michael Crichton novel will leave with anything but disappointment. And, furthermore, its list of international contributors is vast.

Thus far, the library has scanned books across 20 different languages, including 360,000 in English, 970,000 in Chinese, 50,000 in Telugu (Indian), and a further 40,000 in Arabic. European countries have refused to take part in the project.

The Million Book Project has been funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation along with contributions from computer industry businesses and also various governmental offerings issued by the likes of the U.S., China, and India.

Learn more by visiting the Universal Digital Library at the following link: http://www.ulib.org/