Mass Digitization of Books: Exit Microsoft, What Next?

This leaves Microsoft’s partner (and our partner on the Zotero[4] project), the Internet Archive[5], somewhat in the lurch, although Microsoft has done the right thing and removed the contractual restrictions[6] on the books they digitized so they may become part of IA’s fully open collection[7] (as part of the broader Open Content Alliance[8]), which now has about 400,000 volumes. Also still on the playing field is the Universal Digital Library[9] (a/k/a the Million Books Project), which has 1.5 million volumes.