Google Helps World Digital Library Scanning Project

Google is doing the right thing by donating $3 million to the Library of Congress to scan rare documents from around the world. It should use that as a model for its own much-maligned book-scanning project, and scan only non-copyrighted material. The Google donation goes toward the "World Digital Library," which is modeled on the Library of Congress' American Memory project that includes images of 10 million items, such as early maps of the United States, and photographs and letters from the Civil War.

The World Digital Library will include similar rare material from around the world, with large sections possibly devoted to China, India and Islam.

The project will help make many of the world's cultural and historical treasures accessible to millions of people around the world -- anyone with an Internet connection. Google should be lauded for the donation.

Google should follow a similar model for its own Google Book Search (previously called Google Print). The World Digital Library will consist only of non-copyrighted material. The same should hold true of Google Book Search, unless copyright holders want their material scanned.