Tuesday 27 May 2008

So long Microsoft Live Search Books

I was really surprised to learn that Microsoft have decided to cease their Live Search Books and to discontinue their digitization project.

Through Live Search Books and Live Search Academic, Microsoft digitized 750,000 books and indexed 80 million journal articles. They had, you will recall, won a good deal of kudos and respect from the publishing community for taking an approach to book digitization that respected copyright; they started the Live Search Books project by digitizing out of copyright books and had included in-copyright material with the agreement of publishers through their 'Publisher Program'.

The full announcement is currently on the Windows Live Search Book Publisher Program page.

We understand that representatives of the Live Search Books program will be visiting the UK week commencing 2 June 2008 to discuss the cessation of the initiative in person with their Publisher Program Partners.

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