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Google on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan to bring information locked away in print form in libraries into its searchable index.

Google has developed a method of scanning printed material so it can be used to answer searchers' queries along with Web content. Mountain View Calif.-based Google hopes to patent its proprietary method of scanning books and creating a searchable database.

The service went live Monday night with snippets from a few books. Google has already begun the digitization process in collaboration with the University of Michigan, Harvard, Stanford and Oxford Universities, and the New York City Public Library.

"The goal is to unlock the wealth of information that's only available offline and bring it online," said Google Director of Product Management Susan Wojcicki. "We believe we'll make information accessible that previously was not available to users, for example, out-of-print books only available on the library shelf now will be available to Google users." The project will take years to complete, she said.

As they become available, print material will be incorporated into regular Web searches. Whenever a book contains content that matches the search terms, links to that book will be included in the search results. Searchers can click on the book title and see the page that contains the search terms and other information about the book. They can then search for other topics within that book.

For books that are in print and under copyright, search results will include links to where the books can be purchased, as well as whether they're available in a local library. Wojcicki said this will give books increased visibility and can potentially increase book sales.

"We have agreements with publishers where we are able to show a certain percentage of the book," said Google product manager Adam Smith. When it has the rights, Google will show the actual page as it looks in print. For books that are in the public domain, Google will show the entire book if it exists in the database. For books under copyright where Google does not have an agreement in place, the search results will show bibliographic information for the book or a small snippet showing where in the book the answer to the query was located.

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Interesting....