Google and Microsoft Rebuffed In Favor of the Open Content Alliance

Today’s New York Times reports that “Several major research libraries (such as Boston Public Library and Smithsonian Institution) have rebuffed offers from Google and Microsoft to scan their books into computer databases, saying they are put off by restrictions these companies want to place on the new digital collections.

The research libraries, including a large consortium in the Boston area, are instead signing on with the Open Content Alliance, a nonprofit effort aimed at making their materials broadly available.