Google inks deal with University of Minnesota

Minneapolis (MN) - 12 Midwest universities including the University of Minnesota have joined Google in its effort to create a comprehensive digital library.

The new partnership with universities in the Committee of Institutional Cooperation (CIC) will give a huge boost to the Google Books Library Project. With the new move, Google will be able to digitize over 10 million books.

Google has a six year contract with the CIC schools, each of which will help the cost of the preparation and scanning of library books. The estimated cost for each volume is around $60.

Google says this new deal is the largest of its kind in the world of digital book scanning. Both Microsoft and Yahoo have also tried to enter the field, but so far the idea of digital libraries has not been very lucrative for anyone.

Other universities included in the new initiative are the University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.