Google Scooped by an Elephant

Well, sort of. It’s more of a metaphor, but an interesting one at that. According to the New York Times Bits Blog, Google has launched what they call The Google Books Library Project, where the internet monolith plans to scan as many books as possible into its online library, giving “users access to the complete text of books that are in the public domain, and to snippets of books that are protected by copyrights.” Google will also give each library a copy of the digitized books.

But for some libraries, that’s not enough. Enter the HathiTrust. Libraries at 12 Midwestern universities along with all 11 University of California libraries have hatched their own plan for storing the books Google has digitized because they feel that even if Google the company disappears one day, universities will always be around. Hence the HathiTrust- Hathi means “Elephant” in Hindi. Wonder how Google feels about that.

Talk about an elephant in the room…or in this case, library…

Read the entire article here.

Have you written a book that you’re sure will one day be immortalized? Well, you better get cracking to find an agent to represent you. Why not send a query or book proposal to the Minnesota Historical Society Press or the University of Alabama Press? WordHustler wants to insure future generations of readers get a chance to read the majestic works of today…especially if you’re the one writing them!