UC and the Google Book Settlement

In October 2008, Google announced a settlement of a class action lawsuit by the Authors Guild of America and a separate suit by representative members of the Association of American Publishers, both of which sought to bar Google from scanning copies of in-copyright books held in the collections of major U.S. libraries as part of its Google Book Search Library Project.

The University of California became the sixth Google partner library in August 2006 when UC signed an agreement with Google to digitize 2.5 million volumes from UC library collections. Earlier partner libraries include the University of Michigan, Stanford University, Harvard University, the New York Public Library, and Oxford University. (A full list of Google partner libraries is available here.)

An Amended Settlement Agreement was filed with the court on November 13th, 2009. Highlights of the revised terms [PDF] have been prepared by the UC libraries.

The Frequently Asked Questions (also available in PDF) are intended to provide UC faculty and other members of the UC community with detailed information about how both they and the UC libraries will be affected by the Settlement Agreement if it is approved.

In addition, the UC libraries have prepared a document [PDF] describing the Settlement's benefits and their understanding of how concerns identified in consultation with the faculty will be addressed.