University of Calif. joins Google book scan push.

BEIJING, Aug. 10 (Xinhuanet) -- Google Inc. on Wednesday said the University of California has agreed to having books from its libraries' collections digitized and made searchable within the company's controversial library project.

    The UC system's 34 million books are spread across more than 100 libraries on 10 campuses, making it the largest academic research library in the world. The full text of books in the public domain will be available through Google Book Search, while only snippets of copyrighted books will be viewable, along with information about where they can be bought or borrowed.

    The UC system joins the University of Michigan, Harvard University, Stanford University, Oxford University and the New York Public Library in making book collections available to Google. The latter is making available only books in the public domain.

    The participants support of the project is in contrast to writers and publishers who are suing Google to prevent them from digitizing books without first getting their permission.

    The UC system believes Google's policy of providing only snippets of copyrighted works in search results is sufficient protection.

    Google announced its library project last year, prompting separate lawsuits by the Association of American Publishers and the Authors Guild. The organizations are arguing that Google should first seek the permission of copyright holders before digitizing books. Google is arguing that its actions are legal, since it only offers snippets of copyrighted material. The cases are pending.

    Google is working with the U.S. Library of Congress on a similar effort.

    For Google, the new momentum for its Book Search Project is the latest in a string of high-profile deals it has announced over the past week in which it signed a major search and advertising contract with News Corp., the owner of MySpace.com, and a video advertising and delivery deal with Viacom, owner of MTV. Enditem