I was flipping through the most recent University of Chicago alumni magazine and noticed a small blurb about The University of Chicago and 11 of the Big Ten partnering with Google Book Search. The press release states:
“These universities, through their provosts and other key leaders, have worked
together on some of higher education’s greatest challenges and opportunities.
This partnership with Google is one of the most ambitious undertakings in the
history of the CIC, and sets the stage for a remarkable transformation of library
services and information access. We’re opening up these resources as both a
common good shared among the universities, as well as a public good available
more broadly, ” said Barbara McFadden Allen, director of the CIC.”
This announcement followed 5 days after Barry Schwartz reporting about custom search engines. It appears things are heating up again in the Book Search arena.