FAQ

1. Why has the Austrian National Library formed a cooperation with Google?

The cooperation with Google enables the Austrian National Library to digitise its rich historic book holdings and make them accessible online to a worldwide public. By providing the largest possible audience unrestricted access to the library’s holdings, the project Austrian Books Online supports one of the most important strategic goals of the Austrian National Library.

For several years the Austrian National Library has been working on the implementation of a Digital Library. This involves not only collecting, archiving and giving access to digital resources, but also systematic digitisation of the library’s holdings. The cooperation with Google allows to accelerate the digitisation of the historic book collection in a way that would otherwise be unthinkable. Within this cooperation, only public domain works are being digitised.

From the responsibility to preserve unique, rare and valuable books accrues also the obligation of making them accessible to as many people as possible, and at the same time to preserve the volumes in the best possible condition for future generations. By digitising its entire historic book holdings the Austrian National Library meets this responsibility.

The Austrian National Library receives digital copies of all works digitised in the project Austrian Books Online and makes them available through its Digital Library. Thus the project gives online access to historic holdings, which are often unique and hard to find. The digitised holdings will be available for full text search. In the future, the use of state-of-the-art search technologies will further improve the accessibility of the digitised books.

In addition the project Austrian Books Online contributes to the protection and conservation of the Austrian National Library’s valuable historic book holdings. As digital copies of individual books can be used, it is not in every case necessary to use the original book. The digital copies are stored and preserved in the digital repository of the Austrian National Library. Thus, this project makes an important contribution to the democratisation of knowledge as well as to the conservation of the cultural heritage kept in the Austrian National Library.

2. Why does Google collaborate with the Austrian National Library?

The historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library are among the world’s most important collections. They comprise one of the largest collections of historic books in German Language, as well as famous and comprehensive holdings in many other languages from Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

The digitisation of the Austrian National Library’s historic book holdings enriches Google Books and contributes to Google’s aim of making books in all languages available and searchable worldwide.

In addition, the Austrian National Library maintains a complete electronic catalogue of its historic book holdings. These important data will further improve the quality of Google Books.

3. What is the Google Books program?

The cooperation of the Austrian National Library with Google is part of the so-called library project in the framework of Google Books. Google cooperates with a number of leading libraries across the world with the goal of digitising millions of books and making them available online in order to help users searching for books.
Books in the public domain can be downloaded or read in full text on Google Books. Also the digitised books of the Austrian National Library will be available via Google Books http://books.google.at/). Further information on Google Books can be found at http://books.google.at/intl/de/googlebooks/about.html.

4. What makes the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library which are being digitised in the project with Google so remarkable?

As the former Imperial Court Library of the Habsburg Empire, the Austrian National Library is one of Europe’s most eminent cultural treasuries. This is due to the geographic extent of the Habsburg Empire and the key role of the Habsburgs in European history.

The historic book collection of the Austrian National Library includes a total of more than half a million volumes and ranks among the five most important historic book collections worldwide.

From the very beginning books were collected not merely for representative purposes, but systematically according to scholarly and artistic criteria. Throughout history, scholars from various countries all over Europe worked at the library: Dutchmen, Italians, Germans, Slovenes, Czechs, Poles, Croats and Austrians. The history of the library and its holdings mirrors the historical diversity and the multi-national heritage of Austria.

As early as in the 16^th century rules were promulgated for the obligatory non-reimbursable deposit of books at the library to expand the holdings with new editions of the growing number of new publications. That “legal deposit” was extended in 1808 to the whole monarchy which led to a considerable growth of the library. On top of the many book collections of the Habsburgs holdings were enlarged by valuable private libraries, such as the approximately 15,000 volumes of the famous library of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1737), and the libraries of public institutions, e.g. the Vienna University Library (1756).

Approximately 44,000 books from the 16^th century are among the most valuable holdings of the library. Beside world famous books like the first complete translation of the Bible into German by Martin Luther (1534) there are the first works printed in Vienna, among them the „Wiener Heiltumsbuch“ of 1502, which is not only unique but also shows one of the first illustrations of Vienna’s Saint Stephen’s Cathedral.

The historical role of the Austrian National Library explains that important and large holdings from eastern and south-eastern Europe are part of the library. After the National Library of Slovenia, the Austrian National Library is the richest source of south Slavic Reformation prints, mostly Slovenian. The only copy of the first Slovenian book from the middle of the 16th^th century is to be found in the Austrian National Library. The Austrian National Library also has the oldest printed work in Bulgarian. The most comprehensive eastern European section of the collection is in Czech language. In addition, the Austrian National Library is one of the few institutions outside Hungary that owns important holdings of Hungarica. Many Hungarian works of the 16th century can only be found in the Austrian National Library – for example, the only complete copy of the oldest work printed in Hungarian language.

5. How many books are being digitised?

The Austrian National Library and Google collaboratively determine which books from the historic book holdings will be digitised. It is intended to digitise about 600,000 volumes.

6. Are works in various languages being digitised?

Yes. Apart from works in German the Austrian National Library owns extensive holdings in other languages, such as Czech, Hungarian, Polish, French, Italian, and Latin, which are being digitised as part of the project.

7. When has the project started?

The first phase of the project started in June 2010. Until the end of 2010 the organisational and logistic requirements for the operational phase of the project were being established. The digitisation proper started in spring 2011. Digitised volumes from the holdings of the Austrian National Library are already available via Google Books as well as via the catalogue of the Austrian National Library (http://search.obvsg.at/ONB/de_DE).

8. How long will the project take?

The agreement with Google is planned for six years. As part of Austrian Books Online the digitisation of 600,000 volumes, which approximates to 200 million pages, can be carried out in a few years. This would not be possible without the collaboration with Google. So far, even ambitious digitisation projects in libraries could typically digitise not more than about 5,000 volumes a year. Hence, a project at a scale of the cooperation with Google would have needed more than 100 years.

9. What does the Austrian National Library get in return for providing its books to Google for digitisation?

Any books of the Austrian National Library that are being digitised during the project Austrian Books Online are being made available successively via Google Books. That way, the historic book holdings are available online to a worldwide public. So far access was only possible in the reading rooms of the Austrian National Library.

Apart from that, the Austrian National Library will receive copies of all digitised items, which are preserved for the long-term and made accessible via the Digital Library.

10. What are the Austrian National Library’s plans with regard to the works being digitised?

The digital copies of the books are linked within the online catalogue of the Austrian National Library (http://search.obvsg.at/ONB/de_DE) and thus directly accessible via a web browser. Through the Digital Library of the Austrian National Library the digitised works are searchable in full text as well. The further development of extended digital services is planned to offer all users a complete working environment in the Digital Library.

All digital copies from the cooperation with Google are archived by the Austrian National Library. Through the creation and preservation of digital copies, the project Austrian Books Online contributes to the preservation of the historic holdings of the Austrian National Library, hence to the conservation of Austria’s cultural heritage.

It is planned to make the works available also via Europeana (http://www.europeana.eu/), the European Digital Library.

11. What advantages does the project bring to users of the Austrian National Library?

The project Austrian Books Online makes the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library available online within just a few years. The possibility of finding digitised works easily, of performing full text searches, of reading online or downloading books, greatly enhances the usability of the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library. The works digitised in the cooperation with Google are being made available to users of the Austrian National Library for non-commercial purposes (including publishing). Researchers, students, and other users of the Austrian National Library have direct access to hundreds of thousands of works that were previously hard to find or where only restricted access has been available. They may retrieve and view those works from anywhere in the world without the restrictions of opening hours. Users are able to search and retrieve digitised works, consult the tables of contents or search within books for individual words and phrases. Apart from online access, users are provided with the possibility to retrieve parts and whole books as PDF files. Full text search allows finding relevant passages of the historical texts.

It is to be expected that in future new tools and computer-assisted methods like text-mining will be available for analysis and scientific research. Hence, for example, diachronic linguistic analysis will have access to an enormous text corpus. Literary scholars will have new possibilities, for example, in examining literary influences, historians will be able to examine important historical sources with new instruments. This way the project Austrian Books Online makes a significant contribution to supporting scholarship, research, and education.

12. What advantages does the project have for internet users in general?

The digitised works of the Austrian National Library are available for retrieval and full text search via Google Books, the general Google search, but also via the Austrian National Library’s Digital Library. This way the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library are available to a worldwide public. Users can search, retrieve, read the books in full text and download the books. The project Austrian Books Online significantly increases the availability of the historic book holdings for users all over the world.

13. How does the project fit in with the mission statement of the Austrian National Library?

The Austrian National Library describes itself in its mission statement ( http://www.onb.ac.at/vision2025 ) [German version] as a “living bridge between the rich heritage of the past and the future-oriented demands of a modern information society”. The digitisation project of the Austrian National Library and Google is in line with that mission statement, as it allows to read and search one of the world’s most important book collections.

14. What is the relationship of the project with Europeana / the European Digital Library?

From the very beginning, the Austrian National Library has been involved in Europeana, the European Digital Library (http://www.europeana.eu/), which is promoted by the European Commission in the framework of the i2010 Digital Libraries initiative and the Digital Agenda. The Austrian National Library coordinated the large scale European-funded project EuropeanaConnect ( ), which devised core technologies for Europeana. Currently, the Austrian National Library leads the project Europeana Creative (http://www.europeanacreative.eu). This project develops business models for small and medium sized enterprises from the creative sector, which want to work with digitised data from cultural heritage institutions.

In near future, the digitised books resulting from the cooperation with Google are to be made available via Europeana as well. A user looking for works in Europeana that are being digitised as part of the project Austrian Books Online will be forwarded to the full text in the Digital Library of the Austrian National Library.

15. Are the digitised books accessible via the online catalogue of the Austrian National Library?

Yes. Users who find a book in the online catalogue of the Austrian National Library (http://search.obvsg.at/ONB/de_DE) which has been digitised in the project Austrian Books Online can access the digital copy via a link in the catalogue, read it online, search in the full-text or download it as a PDF.

16. How do I search for a digitised book?

Users can find the digitised books via the online catalogue of the Austrian National Library (http://search.obvsg.at/ONB/de_DE). The library makes the digitised books available successively via its Digital Library.

Additionally, users can search for digitised books via Google Books ( http://books.google.at/ ). Search results from books will also appear in the regular Google search. Public domain works can be displayed and downloaded without restrictions. This applies basically to all works of the Austrian National Library that are being digitised in the cooperation with Google.

Google Books provides additional services that are constantly being extended. Examples for complementary services are links to libraries where users can read or lend the original. The books of the Austrian National Library are also part of the Google eBooks service (http://books.google.com/ebooks).

Further information on Google Books is to be found at http://books.google.at/intl/de/googlebooks/library.html.

It is planned to make the digitised books accessible via Europeana (http://www.europeana.eu/), the European Digital Library, as well.

17. Is it possible to use full-text search in the digitised books?

Part of the process of digitisation is optical character recognition (OCR). As a result, it is not only be possible to display the digitised books and download them as PDFs, but users can search the full text of the books.

18. Is it possible to read entire books online?

Since all of the books of the Austrian National Library which are being digitised as part of the project Austrian Books Online are in the public domain, the digitised items can be made accessible online for free. The volumes can be read via the Austrian National Library’s online book viewer, but also be downloaded. Users may read and search the books via the Austrian National Libraries’ Digital Library as well as via Google Books.

19. Is the use of the digitised Books free of charge?

The digitised items from the cooperation with Google are available free of charge for users of the Austrian National Library’s Digital Library and can be used for non-commercial purposes (including publication).

20. Are digitised collected volumes searchable on the basis of individual articles?

Digitised works are in their entirety searchable and accessible online. However, at this point of time, it is not planned to provide and offer additional bibliographical information at the level of individual essays or articles.

21. I am interested in a book. How do I find out if and when a book is going to be digitised?

Unfortunately, the Austrian National Library cannot provide information on the exact date of digitisation of a single work.

22. When has Google’s book project started with libraries?

The Google Books project has been launched at the end of 2004. The first project partners were the libraries of the Universities of Michigan, Stanford, Harvard, Oxford and the New York Public Library. Currently, more than 40 libraries all over the world, among them thirteen in Europe, are participating (as of April 2013).

23. Which other libraries are participating in the Google Books library program?

Including the Austrian National Library, more than 40 leading libraries worldwide have joined the project until now.

The Austrian National Library was the second national library to cooperate with Google in its library program. Thirteen European libraries are currently participating in the project.

Google is working with the following libraries:

Project partners in Europe:

• Austrian National Library
• Bodleian Library, Oxford
• Bavarian State Library, Munich
• British Library
• Cantonal and University Library, Lausanne
• Italian Ministry of Culture with
  • National Library, Florence
  • National Library, Rome
• Library of the University Complutense, Madrid
• Library of Catalonia, Barcelona (5 libraries)
• Municipal Library, Lyon
• National Library of the Czech Republic
• National Library of the Netherlands
• University Library, Ghent

Project partners in the USA:

• Columbia University
• Committee on Institutional Collaboration (CIC), consisting of:
  • Indiana University
  • Michigan State University
  • Northwestern University Ohio State University
  • Pennsylvania State University
  • Purdue University
  • University of Chicago
  • University of Illinois, Chicago
  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Iowa
  • University of Michigan (already an individual partner, see above)
  • University of Minnesota
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison (already an individual partner, see above)
• Cornell University
• Harvard University
• NASA Library
• New York Public Library
• Princeton University
• Stanford University
• University of California Libraries:
  • Northern Regional Library Facility
  • University of California, Los Angeles
  • University of California, San Diego
  • University of California, Santa Cruz
• University of Michigan
• University of Texas at Austin
• University of Virginia
• University of Wisconsin-Madison

Google has also completed a pilot project with the Library of Congress.

Project partners in Asia:

• Library of Keio University, Tokyo

24. Where can I see examples of books which Google has digitised for libraries?

Examples and screen shots are available at http://books.google.at/googlebooks/library.html.

25. Can I already use Google Books?

Yes, more than 20 million works are available via Google Books (as of April 2013).

26. Where can I read about the data protection regulations for the Google Books service?

You can find the general privacy policy for Google services at http://www.google.at/intl/en/policies/privacy/. That page describes how Google handles personal information when you use Google services, including Google Books.

The additional policies on data protection linked with Google Books can be found at http://books.google.com/googlebooks/privacy.html?hl=en.
Questions and answers on data protection in connection with Google Books can be found at http://support.google.com/books/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=43733.

27. Why is a digitised books from the holdings of the Austrian National Library not available in full view on Google Books

Several conditions may lead to this. In general, titles that are potentially protected by copyright – that is not in the public domain – are not available in full view. Given the scope of the Google Books project, the decision on any individual books legal status can generally not be made manually, but is determined algorithmically. Thus, it is possible books are mistaken for being protected by copyright and excluded from full view. In these cases, it is possible to report these volumes to Google (http://support.google.com/books/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=180577). Alternatively, the digital object is – as soon as the Austrian National Library integrated it into its digital holdings – available via the online catalogue of the library (http://search.obvsg.at/ONB/de_DE).

28. Did the Austrian National Library enter into an exclusive agreement with Google?

No, the concluded agreement is non-exclusive. The Austrian National Library is at liberty to enter additional digitisation projects with other partners.

29. Does Google acquire rights to the works being digitised?

No, Google does not acquire rights to these works. Of course, the project does not alter the status of the works of being free from copyright.

30. Are books being digitised that are protected by copyright?

The works being digitised are all free from copyright, as they are selected exclusively from the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library and are published between the early 16th and the second half of the 19th century. Works which are still protected by copyright are expressly excluded from the project. The agreement between the Austrian National Library and Google excludes digitisation of works protected by copyright.

31. Which works are in the public domain?

In Austria, copyright on literary works expires seventy years after the death of the creator. All of the works being digitised in the project are in the public domain.

32. Are specific public domain works of the Austrian National Library excluded from the project?

In principle, the entire historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library are part of the project. Only particularly valuable books and works that cannot be digitised for conservation reasons or because of their format are excluded.

33. Will the Austrian National Library in future allow Google to digitise works that are not in the public domain?

Digitisation of works of the Austrian National Library protected by copyright is not planned within the scope of the project with Google.

34. What is the relationship between the cooperation of Google and the Austrian National Library and the class action lawsuit of publishers’ and authors’ organisations against Google in the USA (the so-called “Google Book Settlement”)?

There is no connection between the cooperation and the class action lawsuit in the USA brought forward by the American Authors’ Guild and the Association of American Publishers against Google (whereas the latter has been settled). That class action concerns exclusively books where the copyright period has not yet expired. It is essential for the agreed collaboration that the Austrian National Library provides Google only with volumes that are in the public domain.

35. Where can I find more information on the so-called “Google Book Settlement”?

Information on the agreement between Google and the publishers and authors can be found at the following website: http://www.googlebooksettlement.com/ .

36. Who is financing the project?

Google meets the costs for digitisation and text recognition. Google also incurs the expenses associated with the digitisation process, such as transport and insurance.

The Austrian National Library bears the costs for selecting, preparing and re-shelving of the books. This includes the costs for the provision of the complete set of metadata for the digitised holdings. In the standard-workflow, modifications of the metadata and selective re-cataloguing are performed. The preparation includes the conservatory inspection and evaluation of each individual volume for suitability for digitisation as well as necessary conservatory measures. Apart from the logistics, the library also covers the costs for the “digital logistics”. This includes download and quality assurance for the digital objects as well as resources for serving them via the Digital Library of the Austrian National Library.

37. What effect does the project have on other digitisation projects of the Austrian National Library?

The digitisation project with Google complements the other digitisation projects of the Austrian National Library. These projects represent a major step towards the proclaimed Vision 2025 of the Austrian National Library (http://www.onb.ac.at/vision2025). Among the major projects in this area are the digitisation of the historical newspaper holdings (ANNO, http://anno.onb.ac.at/), the holdings of historical legal texts (ALEX, http://alex.onb.ac.at/), important parts of the holdings of the Picture Archives and Graphics Department (http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/collections/picturearchive.htm), the Department of Papyri and the Department of Manuscripts and Rare Books (http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/collections/had.htm). The comprehensive digitisation effort is an essential part of the strategic goals of the Austrian National Library to make the collections available online free of charge to users from all over the world. The digitisation of the historic book holdings in the project Austrian Books Online bring the Austrian National Library a major step closer to achieving this goal. Of course, the digitisation of the other collections of the Austrian National Library will be continued.

38. What is the difference between this project and other digitisation projects of the Austrian National Library?

The project with Google differs from the other digitisation projects in its scale. The goal of Austrian Books Online is the digitisation of the entire historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library. Initially, about 600,000 books, that is about 200 million book pages, will be digitised.

39. What is the relationship of the cooperation between Google and other Austrian National Library - Digital Library projects?

The Austrian National Library has been working for several years on the development of a digital repository. In 2009 the so-called “legal deposit” was expanded to online publications by an amendment to the Austrian Media Law. The digital archives and the workflows built up in recent years allow to fulfil the new obligations for long-term preservation of digital publications. In 2009 the Austrian National Library started archiving the Austrian web (web archiving).

The Austrian National Library is a key partner in several European research projects in the field of digital libraries. For example, in the EU projects PLANETS (http://www.planets-project.eu/) and SCAPE the Austrian National Library works on implementing strategies, services, and tools for digital long-term preservation. In the EU project IMPACT ( http://www.impact-project.eu/ ), new methods for improving full text digitisation (OCR) of historical texts have been developed in the context of mass digitisation projects. The Austrian National Library has been coordinator of the project EuropeanaConnect (http://www.europeanaconnect.eu/) in which core components for Europeana, the European Digital Library (http://www.europeana.eu/) have been developed. Currently, the Austrian National Library leads the project Europeana Creative (http://www.europeanacreative.eu). This project develops business models for small and medium sized enterprises from the creative sector, which want to work with digitised data from cultural heritage institutions.

Further information on those projects can be found on the website of the Department for Research and Development (http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/about/15099.htm).
The cooperation with Google projects represents a major step towards the proclaimed Vision 2025 of the Austrian National Library (http://www.onb.ac.at/vision2025 ) in the area of digital libraries and enables the digitisation of the historic book holdings on a scale otherwise impossible.

40. Where are the books being digitised?

The books are scanned in a Google digitisation centre. Since the start of the library program in 2004 Google has demonstrated its capability to efficiently and safely transport and digitise large quantities of books.

41. Can the Digitisation Centre be visited? How are the books being digitised by Google?

Google’s digitisation centres are only accessible to project partners like the Austrian National Library. Google has developed special digitisation technologies and workflows which are not disclosed to the general public.

42. How good is the quality of the digitised items?

Google has developed technologies that allow to digitise large amounts of books in a short time and at high quality. The quality criteria for the project Austrian Books Online have been jointly defined by Google and the Austrian National Library and are constantly reviewed and monitored by both partners. The quality of digitised items complies with usual standards for digitisation. In addition, the procedures for production and further processing of the digitised items are continually being improved.

43. How are books chosen for digitisation?

The Austrian National Library plans to digitise its entire historic book holdings in the project Austrian Books Online. A selection of individual sections of the holdings is not intended for cost reasons. In addition, exact criteria are set out in the project plan to decide which books are not to be digitised for conservation reasons.

44. Will particularly valuable books be a part of the project?

Particularly valuable books are currently not being considered for digitisation, but they are not excluded from the project in principle. The project plan sets out exactly which books are to be digitised. The selection of books is carried out in close collaboration with the Institute for Conservation of the Austrian National Library.

45. Could the books be damaged by digitisation?

The processes for transport, storage und digitisation of the books are coordinated with the Institute for Conservation of the Austrian National Library and the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of Monuments (Bundesdenkmalamt) and regulated by contract. Google uses innovative scan technologies that allow a digitisation which is extremely gentle to books. This has been proven in past years by projects already running with other libraries.

Digitisation makes an important contribution to conservation of books because the valuable originals are not required to be used as often in the future. Also, digitisation is part of the protective measures for the holdings in case of a disaster.

Very fragile books that could be damaged during transport or digitisation are not part of the project Austrian Books Online.

46. What happens to the books that have been digitised?

After digitisation, the books are reshelved to their place in the stack rooms of the Austrian National Library and are available to users.

47. If I need a book that is just now being digitised, how long must I wait before I can use it again?

Books that are in the process of digitisation will not be available to users for approximately three months. The books are put back after digitisation to their original location in the stack rooms.

If users find a book in the online catalogue of the Austrian National Library (http://search.obvsg.at/ONB/de_DE) they want to use, which is in the process of being digitised, they can make a reservation. The procedure is the same as reserving a book that is being used by another reader. Users will receive reserved books as soon as the digitisation is completed.

48. Is the Austrian National Library identifiable as the source of the digitised objects?

The Austrian National Library is named as the source on the page “About this book”, which can be retrieved for every book in Google Books. In addition, the Austrian National Library can be identified by its library stamp and a barcode label that are digitised with every book.

49. Does Google advertise in connection with digitised books of the Austrian National Library?

No, for the present there is no advertising in Google Books in connection with books that have been digitised in the Google Books Library Program. You can find information on how books from the Library Program are made available at http://books.google.at/googlebooks/library.html.

50. Will the use of books of the Austrian National Library via Google Books be subject to utilisation fees in future?

Searching for books of the Austrian National Library in Google Books, complete viewing, full-text searches, downloading of complete books and use for non-commercial purposes (including publication) will be free of charge in future also. The guarantee to make the digitised items available to end users free of charge has been an important precondition for concluding the agreement between Google and the Austrian National Library.

51. Will the project have an effect on how the Austrian National Library will collect and archive printed works in future?

The Austrian National Library entered the project Austrian Books Online to digitise its historic book holdings in order to be able to offer additional services to readers and to significantly improve the accessibility of its book holdings. Its collection policies, arising from its legal mandate and the collection guidelines, are not influenced by the project. Information on the collection guidelines can be found at http://www.onb.ac.at/ev/about/mission.htm.

52. What effect does the project have on the conservation and restoration of the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library?

The Institute for Conservation of the Austrian National Library is closely linked with the digitisation project with Google. Naturally the program for conserving and restoring the library’s book holdings will be continued undiminished after the completion of the digitisation. The project Austrian Books Online will contribute to the protection of the historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library since the original books will not be used as frequently in future as readers can also use the digital copies.

53. How does the Austrian National Library observe security considerations in connection with this project?

The Austrian National Library takes security aspects in digital matters very seriously and has taken measures to protect the data for which it is responsible.

The digitised items from the project with Google will be accessible free of charge. This includes download, storage, print and use for non-commercial purposes (including publication). However, technical precautions are being taken to prevent mass download and automated access to the data (e.g., by search engines).

54. Can I buy items digitised in this project?

No. Users can download individual volumes from the digitised historic book holdings of the Austrian National Library free of charge by visiting the Austrian National’s Digital Library or Google Books. In addition, the works are be part of the Google eBook service.

55. Where can I find further information on the Google Books project?

Detailed information on the Google Books project can be found on the help pages of Google Books at http://books.google.at/googlebooks/about.html. Google regularly provides information on new developments in its „Inside Search“ blog (http://insidesearch.blogspot.co.at/) and in its official Google blog (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/). Older postings concerning Google Book Search (prior to August 24th, 2012) are available at the “Inside Booksearch” blog (http://booksearch.blogspot.com/).