Google which is seeking to create a digital libraryreached an agreement last year with

Google, which is seeking to create a digital library,reached an agreement last year with the Authors Guild andAssociation of American Publishers to pursue the project It isawaiting a judge's approval. "Major commercial publishers have been content withstrategies that maximize profits by selling subscriptions tofew customers at high cost. Typically, these customers areacademic and research libraries," the libraries said in theircomments on the settlement. The library groups are concerned that a subscription toGoogle books may become indispensable to universities and thatsubscription rates could skyrocket, said Prue Adler of the ARL,citing the journal Brain Research, which costs $23,000 a year. The settlement is unusual is that it essentially structuresthe digitized book search market while that market is in itsinfancy, said Bert Foer, president of the American AntitrustInstitute. "On the whole what they're trying to do is remarkablycreative," he said.

"But that doesn't mean that the processshould avoid the type of public input that would be there inother circumstances." NO PRIVACY PROTECTION IN SETTLEMENT Libraries expressed concern that the settlement does notspell out what Google would do with information about users. This, they said, was in "stark contrast" with steps spelledout in the settlement to secure the digitized books againstunauthorized access. "Evidently, in the settlement negotiations the classrepresentatives insisted on these measures to protect thesecurity of digital copies of their books; but no one demandedprotection of user privacy," the filing said. Adler said she would push Google to adopt stringent privacypolicies.

Google said in a statement that it was "proud to partnerwith dozens of libraries around the world as part of our booksearch efforts." "We have consistently maintained that, if approved by thecourt, our settlement agreement stands to unlock access tomillions of books for users in the US," according to an emailedstatement. Philip Zane of the law firm Baker, Donelson, Bearman,Caldwell & Berkowitz said the Justice Department could alsodecide that Google's offer to put Google books on one terminalper library -- no matter how large -- was inadequate. "There may be other things that don't pass a reasonablenesstest," he said. "It would be an enormous concentration of powerin one place, and it could really squeeze the libraries ... Ithink it's going to be an extended investigation." Attempts to reach the Association of American Publishersfor comment were not immediately successful.