British Library books to be digitized through Google
Many British Library books are to be digitized through Google. British Library Board

Google and the British Library announced a partnership on Monday to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright books from the library’s collections.

The entire digitization cost will be covered by Google.

Materials include printed books, pamphlets and periodicals dated 1700 to 1870, which cover the French and Industrial Revolution, in a variety of European languages.

The digitized books will be available for full text search, download and reading through Google Books as well as the British Library site.

“Through this partnership we believe that we are building on this proud tradition of giving access to anyone, anywhere and at any time,” said the chief executive of the British Library.

“Our aim is to provide perpetual access to this historical material, and we hope that our collections coupled with Google’s know-how will enable us to achieve this aim.”

Similar deals are already in place between Google and 40 libraries across the globe.

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