Leuven University Library is to collaborate with Google to digitise more than 70,000 books. Most of the books date from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. If the university were to do the job itself, it would take more than 99 years.
Leuven University and Google are joining forces to digitise 70,000 books. "These are books and reference works from our repositories, especially from the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries," says Bruno Vandermeulen. He is head of digitisation at KU Leuven. "This collection is currently not available to the public. By digitising them, they become accessible to everyone via Google Books or via our online library catalogue."
Leaf by leaf
Bruno Vandermeulen is thrilled with the collaboration with Google. "We can't do this work alone. The scanning is done manually, leaf by leaf. If we were to scan those 70,000 books here ourselves, it would take 99 years. They are going to do the job in two years."
"It sounds like madness," says Bruno. "But the added value of digitising is enormous. Not only do the books become available to read, but you can also search them. That's a big step forward for researchers."
Our video shows the scanning process at Leuven University.
Secret location
Each time, 5,000 books are taken to Google. "They are carefully packaged. The exact location where they go is a secret. Not for fear of theft, but at the request of the company itself. Google doesn't like to share information."
Still, there are a few books that remain safely at Leuven University. "The really old and precious works we scan ourselves. Some books are very fragile and virtually falling apart. We have already lost some very precious works in the two fires during the war. So we prefer to keep such valuable works here."