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Google to Digitize More than a Million Books from the University of Texas at Austin, Including World Renowned Latin American Collection

Announcement
January 19, 2007

Today, Google welcomes its latest library partner – the University of Texas at Austin – to the Google Books Library Project. Known as the fifth largest academic library in the United States, the University of Texas Libraries house some of the nation’s leading collections, including the world-renowned Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. Soon, researchers and history lovers all over the world will be able to search more than one million books and materials from the University of Texas, including selections from these unique works from early Latin American history.

Initially endowed with a unique set of rare books and manuscripts relating to Mexico, the Benson Collection now maintains a wealth of information from Latin America, with special concentrations on Brazil, Chile, Peru, and the countries of the Rio de la Plata and Central America. The Benson Collection chronicles the rich history, politics and society of the region and includes the works of notable Latin American authors.

"Intellectual discovery is at the heart of the scholarly research process," said Fred Heath, vice provost and director of libraries at the University of Texas. "The best collections of information are only as useful as the quality of the tools available for discovering and accessing that information. Joining with Google’s Book Search program will mean that the intellectual content of our collections are discoverable by a much wider range of scholars and students."

Working together, Google and the University of Texas will digitize over a million books from the university’s collection. Anyone will be able to freely view, browse, and read the university’s public domain documents. For books protected by copyright, users will be able to see basic background (such as the book’s title and the author’s name), at most a few lines of text related to their search, and information about where they can buy or borrow a book.

The Google Books Library Project digitizes books from major libraries around the world and makes their collections searchable on Google Book Search. More information can be found at: books.google.com.

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