University of Delaware Library Joins Google Books Library Project to Expand Global Access to Rare Collections

The University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press has announced its partnership with the Google Books Library Project, a global initiative comprising leading research libraries working to make books and printed materials searchable and accessible to readers and researchers worldwide. 

Through this collaborative partnership, more than 100,000 unique volumes from the UD Library’s collections will be digitized over the next three years. The project focuses on works that are rare, out of print, or otherwise unavailable online, transforming historically significant works that have long been accessible only in person into shared global resources.  

Once digitized, public domain books will be fully readable online, while copyrighted works will display limited preview snippets. All processed materials will be made freely searchable via Google Books, discoverable through the University of Delaware Library catalog, and preserved in the HathiTrust Digital Library—a not-for-profit collaborative of academic and research libraries holding more than 19 million digitized items.  

“Libraries exist not only to curate and preserve knowledge, but to ensure it can be discovered and shared,” said Trevor A. Dawes, Vice Provost for Libraries and Museums and May Morris University Librarian. “Our participation in this project will facilitate access to over 100,000 works in digital form, a scale of digitization we could not achieve on our own. By transforming these place-bound, physical texts into a searchable digital corpus, we are democratizing access for scholars, students, and readers at UD and across the globe.” 

Preserving Distinctive Delaware Collections 

The volumes selected for digitization reflect the depth and breadth of the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press collections, with a particular emphasis on distinctive materials and unique imprints not currently available through other Google Books partner institutions, including notable strengths in Delawareana and historical trade catalogs. Representing subjects across literature, history, political science, education, art, culture, and other areas of scholarly significance, the project directly supports the University’s teaching and research mission while expanding global access to valuable academic resources. 

Starting in summer 2026, library staff will send physical books to Google’s U.S. digitization center in secure, ongoing batches for scanning. The Library, Museums and Press will retain physical or digital ownership of all scanned materials. 

Possessing these digital copies also provides the Library with greater long-term flexibility to manage on-site print collections and participate in shared collection management programs, ultimately freeing up physical campus spaces for other strategic, student-centered purposes. 

Elevating Academic Integrity in the AI Landscape

In addition to expanding global access to research, the Library’s participation addresses a modern technological imperative: supporting emerging forms of digital scholarship and the responsible development of artificial intelligence. By integrating more than 100,000 vetted, high-quality volumes into the global digital ecosystem, the University is actively shaping the future of information literacy. 

“An important consideration for us is that Google uses digitized content to help train AI models,” said Trevor A. Dawes. “As artificial intelligence technologies continue to evolve, it is increasingly important that these systems learn from reliable, scholarly, and well-curated sources. By contributing authoritative academic resources from our collections—while retaining clear source attribution and bibliographic context for those materials—we help ensure that future AI systems are also trained on verified content. This directly aligns with our mission to support academic integrity, transparency, and high-quality information in an increasingly AI-driven world.” 

A Global Initiative with Deep Roots 

Launched in 2004, the Google Books Library Project has built the world’s most comprehensive searchable index of full-text books, encompassing more than 40 million volumes in over 500 languages. Early partners included Harvard University, Stanford University, the University of Oxford, and the New York Public Library. UD now joins this distinguished group of international research institutions contributing to the preservation and accessibility of the world’s published record. 

“Google Books was launched over 20 years ago with the ambition to make the world’s book-bound knowledge digitally searchable for everyone,” said Steve McVay, lead of the Google Books Library Project. “We are thrilled to welcome the University of Delaware to this initiative and to integrate its distinctive, scholarly titles into this global digital library.” 

An internal UD Library Working Group—led by Erin Daix, Associate University Librarian for Acquisitions and Collections Services, and including Sebastian Derry, Megan Gaffney, Alex Johnston, Hillary Kativa, Jennifer MacDonald, Shelly McCoy, and Julie McGee—is overseeing all aspects of the project’s implementation, from collection selection and logistics to metadata quality and communications. 

Funding for the three-year initiative is provided through special project funding and dedicated library endowment income, ensuring the project has no impact on the Library’s collection budget. For questions about the Google Books initiative at the University of Delaware Library, Museums and Press, contact Erin Daix at daix@udel.edu.