Microsoft on Tuesday took another step into Google’s terrain by announcing a deal with a digital scanning company to produce digital books.
Kirtas Technologies, which makes high-speed scanners and the software to edit and organise books, will scan works for Microsoft’s Live Book Search Web-based application. The books will become available early next year.
The Windows Live book project is part of a broader push by Microsoft to make up ground lost to Google and other search groups.
Windows Live is intended as a response to an array of popular web-based applications, such as Google’s e-mail, online mapping and spreadsheet programmes, which have threatened to unseat Microsoft’s dominant position in desktop software.
Last year, Google announced plans to put online 15m volumes from the libraries of Stanford, Michigan and Harvard universities, in addition to the New York Public Library – and has since been engulfed in a storm of controversy over copyright issues.
Microsoft on Tuesday announced a new partnership to scan books from Cornell University’s library. Microsoft has already agreed partnerships with the British Library and libraries at the University of California and the University of Toronto.
It has sought to avoid the criticism directed at Google’s project by limiting its initiative to books whose copyrights have lapsed and are now in the public domain. The company has also created a tool for publishers wishing to make in-copyright material available.
Microsoft’s agreement with Kirtas will considerably increase the pace of the digitisation process. Kirtas has developed the fastest robotic scanner in the world that allows up to 2,400 pages to be digitally scanned and stored per hour. This represents a speed of about eight minutes per book.
Lotfi Belkhir, chief executive officer of Kirtas Technologies, said his company’s speed and quality will give Microsoft a competitive edge. “We deliver a speed and quality that neither Google nor any other company can match,” he said.
Additional reporting by Kevin Allison in San Francisco
