Mardigian Library participates in Google Books Library Project

The Google Books Library Project has arrived at UM-Dearborn! This means part of the Mardigian Library's collection will be sent to Google and digitized through a highly-secretive process.

On June 17, Library staff (bottom photo, from left) Barbara Bolek, Linda Burt, Patty Rutkowski, Judi Starosta and Beth Taylor helped load the first shipment of 5,000 books onto a truck that took them to the Google digitization center.

The Library is sending titles not already digitized by other libraries participating in the project. It's expected that about 75,000 of the Mardigian Library's books and bound journals will be processed, with the entire project completed by the end of this year.

Once a title has been digitized, its contents can be searched online. If a title is out of copyright, it can be viewed online or downloaded. Titles still under copyright protection can be searched, but the full-text will not be available; the patron will need to get the physical book from the shelves.

For the next five to six months, 10,000 to 15,000 books and bound journals will be off the Library's shelves at any given time. Typically, an item being digitized will be off the shelf for three weeks. While a book is out, its status in the library catalog will be "out for scanning."

Those who need a book or bound journal that has been sent for digitization can:

1) request the title through MeLCat: http://elibrary.mel.org/search
2) request the title through traditional interlibrary loan: http://library.umd.umich.edu/services/ill/index.html
3) check the library catalog periodically to see if the item's status has changed to "available."

NOTE: Do not place a hold on a title that is out for processing. Items returned by Google will not trigger hold notices.

Faculty, staff or students who have questions should contact one of the staff members working on the project:

Beth Taylor, Head of Technical Services, x35402, [email protected]
Jon Scherger, Head of Circ. & ILL Services, x35598, [email protected]
Barbara Kriigel, Assoc. Director for Circ. & TS, x35614, [email protected]

For more information about the Google Books Library Project, visit http://www.google.com/googlebooks/library.html