It has been said that Microsoft desided to ended Microsoft’s book-search project. They said in the blog post that Microsoft wanted to focus its digitization and search efforts on markets with a “high commercial intent,” such as travel.
Microsoft was not as ambitious as Google in the volume of material it sought to digitize and was not willing to devote as much money to the endeavor. Anne R. Kenney, from University librarian at Cornell University said that “Microsoft was a little slower off the mark than Google.” Book digitization is a setback for the preservation of books, librarian said.
By the time Microsoft ends the program Microsoft is still scanning parts of Cornell’s collection. Between 90,000 and 100,000 books will be digitized. Then they will sign agreement with Google for the rest of the collection. Cornell just considering re-contract with Microsoft to digitize its books and is disappointed that the company is leaving the field. says Ms. Kenney. “There’s something good about lively, healthy competition.”
University librarian and Dean of libraries at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor,Paul N. Courant agree about Ms. Kenney`s comment.”The more the merrier,” he says of businesses that support digitizing scholarly works. “I don’t like a monopoly, and I like it when there’s lots of money behind an extremely important project.”
Michigan has an agreement with Google—not with Microsoft—to scan and digitize its libraries’ holdings and was among the first academic libraries to partner with the company.
Ivy L. Anderson, director of collections at the California Digital Library of the University of California, says she, too, is saddened by Microsoft’s exit.
Microsoft digitized 150,000 items from various California university campuses, she says. The university also reached an agreement with Google in 2006 to scan as many as 3,000 of its books a day.
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