British Library, Google, in deal to digitize books

[June 20, 2011]  LONDON (AP) -- Google has struck a deal with the British Library to make thousands of historic books available online.

The deal, announced Monday, will let Internet users read, search and copy 250,000 texts published between 1700 and 1870.

The deal applies to works in the library's collection that are no longer covered by copyright restrictions.

Google has similar deals with libraries around the world. Its plan to put millions of copyrighted titles online has been opposed by the publishing industry and is the subject of a legal battle in the United States.

The British Library has a collection of 14 million books and almost 1 million periodicals.

Last year it announced plans to digitize up to 40 million pages of newspapers dating back 3 1/2 centuries.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.