By the end of 2009, tens of thousands of new books will be added to the approximately 6,000 items in Cornell's collection already available on Amazon. All of the books are in the public domain in the United States, and many are currently out of print.

"Although demand for online access to digital books has been growing, books as artifacts continue to have a real value," said Oya Rieger, associate university librarian for information technologies. "This initiative supports the reading and research patterns of users who prefer the affordances provided by physical
books - they support deep reading, underlining and writing comments in the margins. The Web is great for easy access and browsing, but because digital content can sometimes be ephemeral, physical books continue to serve as valuable reference sources on your shelf."

For a sample of the titles offered on Amazon, go to http://bookstore.library.cornell.edu, and check Amazon.com throughout the year to see new titles as they are added.

Gwen Glazer, Cornell