The onward march of Google Book Search

Google has signed another major US library to its Google Book Search (GBS) project. This time, it's the University of Texas at Austin, and what's significant about it is that the library has some world-leading Latin American special collections, widening the range and scope of the project.

Meanwhile in Manhattan last Thursday, the New York Public Library hosted a conference organised by Google called Unbound: Advanced Book Publishing in a Digital World. The speaker's roster included Tim O'Reilly (O'Reilly Media) and Michael Holdsworth, former MD of Cambridge University Press. Also present, taking a keen interest, were sales chiefs from Springer and Taylor & Francis - who probably had a few notes to share on Springer's unsuccessful bid for Informa last November.

Holdsworth talked about CUP's "zombie titles" that no longer sell in hardback in an economic way, but get new lives when they can be accessed digitally. CUP has reportedly started up a "Lazarus program" to get these books online via Google Search - visitors who arrive via book search are more likely to buy something, and spend more than others. Others, such as Springer, said they were also happy to revive their backlists online through such mechanisms as Google Book Search.

The blog if:book, a project of The Institute for the Future of the Book, commented archly about Unbound that "Google's tactic here seems simultaneously to be to reassure the publishers while instilling an undercurrent of fear." Publishers are being told to get with the project or lose out in the long term. Though, as if:book noted, "the 800lb. elephant in the room is of course the lawsuits brought against Google (still in the discovery phase) by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors' Guild for their library digitization program".

But despite these ominous clouds, it's clear that Google has decided to engage with publishers and libraries, probably in an attempt to divide and conquer. One of the UK's leading libraries needs to take up the mantle and open this discussion up here as well. With the British Library working closely with Microsoft on a similar digitisation programme, and the Bodleian Library involved with GBS, a similar conference might be in order for other European publishers who weren't at this event to air their views.