Is digitizing going to harm the physical books?
Google has made an extraordinary commitment of research and technology to ensure the books are not damaged. Since the project involves only those books that are part of our regular circulating collection, we are talking about works we lend out every day. Any time you check out a book, you run the risk of damaging it. That’s a reality of offering access to collections. We have confidence in Google’s expertise and experience in handling physical and digital texts.
