Microsoft has planned to digitize 25 million pages of content from the British Library, London, by 2006.


Microsoft has planned to digitize 25 million pages of content from the British Library, London, by 2006. Microsoft and the British Library will digitize 100,000 books that are out of copyright.

Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, the British Library, said, “This partnership helps us fulfil our vision of promoting ready access to our collection for everyone who wants to use it. This is great news for research and scholarship and will give unparalleled access to our vast collections to people all over the world: the items digitised will be available to anyone, anywhere and at any time.” [Source]

Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft, said, “Our partnership with the British Library is not only about digitisation and preservation, but also about delivering a great experience for people accessing this amazing collection through British Library and MSN Web sites.” [Source]

The digitized version will be available on the British Library website as well as MSN Book Search. Microsoft will initially scan a minimum of 10,000 books. Microsoft will invest close to $2.5 million in this project in 2006.

Once Microsoft overcomes technical setbacks, it will make digitized books, maps and manuscripts available on the MSN Book Search page and the British Library website.

To read the complete British Library press release, click here.

To view the British Library website, click here.

 

 

 

 

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