Google offers public-domain books.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis

Google Inc.'s Internet-leading search engine has begun offering the entire contents of books and government documents that aren't ensnared in a copyright battle over how much material from five major libraries can be scanned and indexed.

Google's list of "public domain" works--volumes no longer protected by copyright--include Henry James novels, Civil War histories, Congressional acts, and biographies of wealthy New Yorkers.

Google said the material represents the first large batch of public domain books and documents to be indexed in its search engine since the company announced an ambitious library-scanning project in 2004. The program is designed to make more library material available through a few clicks of a computer mouse. Over the next several years, Google wants to create digital versions of millions of books stacked in the New York Public Library and four university libraries--Stanford, Harvard, Michigan, and Oxford.

Google has not announced how many books have been...