“The collection housed at the extraordinary Mann Library will be digitized, making it possible for people everywhere to search and discover books on environmental science, public policy, natural resources, and much more,” announced William Rucklidge, a Google software engineer and Cornell man.

“This is tremendous news, and I hope people around the world will gain as much joy and enrichment from Cornell’s libraries as I did,” Rucklidge continued on the Inside Google Book Search Blog.

I’ll admit that I might gain more joy from another source – according to a release, Mann Library deals in “biological sciences, natural resources, plant, animal and environmental sciences, applied economics, management and public policy, human development, textiles and apparel, nutrition and food science,” while I’m more of a novel and short story sort of fellow – but it’s a nice thought.

Google’s also keeping mindful of lawyers – as with other Library Project developments, none of this will violate copyright law.  Only out-of-copyright texts will be made fully available, and for everything else (out of the 500,000 books that might be scanned), would-be readers “will just get the basic background (such as the book’s title and the author’s name), [and] at most a few lines of text related to their search and information about where they can buy or borrow a book.”

As for that geographical sequence, I simply thought a little perspective might be needed before diving into this article; our guide, you’ll see, is much more familiar with both the area and the subject at hand.

Emmanuel Begerem, a Consumer Support Associate at Google, writes, “As an alumnus of Ghent University, I am thrilled that the university has decided to open its historic and special collections to the world.  Ghent University has always striven for innovation and it hit a new milestone today by becoming the first Dutch-language library to join the Library Project.”

And once again, some perspective might be needed, so Begerem explains, “This joint project will allow researchers, students and users from all around the world to search, browse and read the incredible collection of public domain books the university has to offer.”

That “all around the world” descriptor also applies to where the project is finding its sources; in the past six days, Google has made book-related deals in Switzerland and India, in addition to the new partnership in Belgium.  Of course, unless you’re fluent in those countries’ native languages, or feel like suffering through a questionable translation, you’re out of luck, but the Google Library Project is still doing some undeniably impressive things.