Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Partners With Google's Library Project

The Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) has joined with Google's Book Search Library Project. CIC and Google will work together to digitize select collections across all of CIC's libraries. The number of volumes involved could be as many as 10 million. The CIC is a national consortium of 12 research universities, including University of Chicago, University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Two CIC libraries, those of the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, had already been partners in this Google Library initiative. The addition of these further 10 CIC institutions represents a very major development, the number of libraries partnering with Google being now 25. From CIC's press release:

Google will have the opportunity to scan some of the most distinctive collections from the CIC’s holdings, now over 75 million volumes. The collections are comprehensive and global in scope, such as Northwestern’s Africana collection and the University of Chicago’s renowned South Asia holdings. The collective library holdings also underscore the Midwest foundation of the CIC universities. . . . Examples of these collections include the University of Minnesota’s Scandinavian and forestry collections, Michigan State’s extensive holdings in agriculture, Indiana University’s folklore collection, and the history and culture of Chicago collection from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

See CIC's full press release and Google's announcement.