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Read the University of California Libraries Statement Regarding the Federal Court Decision on the Proposed Google Books Amended Settlement Agreement (March 23, 2011).

UC and the Google Book Settlement

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.)

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 UC Libraries are founding partners of the HathiTrust, a library-led initiative to archive digital content. The Hathi Trust is an important complement to digitization initiatives with Google.

UC documents

• UC Libraries Google Book Digitization Agreement, August 2006. [PDF]
• Highlights of the Amended Settlement Agreement [PDF] that was filed with the court on November 13th, 2009, have been prepared by the UC libraries.
• Frequently Asked Questions (also available in PDF), prepared by the California Digital Library, 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 August, 2009, the UC libraries prepared a document [PDF] describing the Settlement's benefits and their understanding of how concerns identified in consultation with the faculty will be addressed.
• Hurtling towards the finish: should the Google Books Settlement be approved? by Ivy Anderson, Director of Collections, California Digital Library, February 16, 2010.

UC faculty and Google Book Settlement (selected links)

• Academic Council letter on Google Book Search Settlement, August 13, 2009.
• Professor Pamela Samuelson's law review articles, papers, presentations and briefs on the Google Books Settlement.