Oxford's Google Books now available on SOLO

Oxford materials digitized as part of the Oxford-Google Digitization project are now being added to SOLO, the online catalogue of the Oxford collections.

The Oxford-Google Digitization programme has been part of the Bodleian Libraries’ strategy for widening cultural engagement and ongoing commitment to enable access to their vast collections for the general public. Since March 2006, extensive selections from the Bodleian Libraries' collections have been made freely available on the web via the Google Book Search interface, and are used by a global audience. 

Mass-digitization of the University of Oxford's books took place as part of the Google Books Library project. The agreement between Google and Oxford covered only 'public domain' materials, i.e. printed books for which the UK copyright has expired. Items were selected solely on their copyright status and suitability for scanning, and the works that have been digitized cover a wide range of languages, disciplines, and genres. They include the first English translation of Newton's Mathematical principles of natural philosophy from 1729, the first edition of Jane Austen's Emma, the first edition of Charles Darwin’s On the Origins of Species and John Cassell's Illustrated History of England.

The digitization process led to the creation of two digital copies of each book: one for Google, and one for Oxford. The initial phase of this work completed in the summer of 2009, with several hundred thousand of our books being scanned and made available via Google Books. The Google copy is fully indexed and searchable through the Google Book search service. The second phase of this project which links the Oxford copy directly to the relevant catalogue record in SOLO has now finalized. Find out how to access the digitized copy via SOLO.

For further information contact the Bodleian Press Team: communications@bodleian.ox.ac.uk | 01865 277627