14 DAY TRIAL // Don't expect revelations anytime soon as a consequence of a query performed in a search engine. But at the same time, get yourself ready to access an entire new world of information that was previously less accessible to the general public. The tendency for content to migrate from traditional analog media to the Internet reverberates through all aspects of life, and religion is by no means an exception. Just as rival Google, Microsoft is building an online book service via Live Search Books. Princeton Theological Seminary is just the latest organization to jump aboard Microsoft's Live Search Books wagon, along with publishers and libraries across the world.
"This seminary exists to serve the church both near and far. Continuity, depth, and access are what make a library great. Microsoft will help us to be accessible as never before. We are really grateful for their partnership," stated Princeton Seminary President Iain Torrance.
"Nothing the library has done in the past has the potential to open the richness of our collection to the wider world as much as the Microsoft initiative," said Stephen D. Crocco, James Lenox Librarian of the Seminary. "We are extremely pleased to be sharing in this collaboration with Microsoft and the Internet Archive."
The initiative will result in a number of Seminary library's public domain materials being digitized and indexed, making the religious content available online through Live Search Books. According to Microsoft, the move is designed to permit worldwide access to the Princeton Theological Seminary's religion collection.
Microsoft has revealed that the digitization is planned to debut along in the first quarter of this year. Neither of the two parties involved specified the exact number of books that would be made available online, but according to the Redmond company they number in the thousands. Users will be able to access out-of-copyright materials, content exclusively dated prior to 1923.
"With the burgeoning demand of the worldwide church and research communities' need to collaborate on matters of critical interest, this Microsoft-Princeton Seminary large-scale digital initiative will allow our constituencies and publics to access, search, browse and find pertinent information in pursuit of mutual objectives. We are proud to have the necessary technical and organizational infrastructure to support this partnership," added Princeton Seminary's Vice President for Information Technology, Adrian Backus.