NY Times: Quietly, Google Puts History Online (Google Cultural Insitute)

This articles includes mentions of  several resources and projects we’ve mentioned and linked to on INFOdocket.
From the NY Times Article:

The digitization of the [Dead Sea] scrolls was done by Google under a new initiative aimed at demonstrating that the Internet giant’s understanding of culture extends beyond the corporate kind. The Google Cultural Institute plans to make artifacts like the scrolls — from museums, archives, universities and other collections around the world — accessible to any Internet user.
“We’re building services and tools that help people get culture online, help people preserve it online, promote it online and eventually even create it online,” said Steve Crossan, director of the institute, which is based in Paris.
The plans for the Cultural Institute grew out of the Dead Sea Scrolls initiative and another pilot project for Google in Israel, in which it helped bring the photos and documents of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial onto the Web.
Previous Google cultural programs have also been incorporated into the center, including the Google Art Project, a digital repository of pictures from museums like the National Gallery in London, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.
Now the institute is building up its activities in Paris, where it will be one of the anchors of a sprawling new Google headquarters for Southern and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, which is set to open next year.
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So far, the institute is mostly just a team of engineers working on projects like the ones in Israel. Among the first projects are partnerships with the Palace of Versailles, to help it develop galleries devoted to the history of the chateau, and with the Nelson Mandela Foundation in South Africa. Other plans will be announced soon, Mr. Crossan said.

Read the Complete Article
See Also:

• New Online: Digital (Hi-Res) Dead Sea Scrolls From Israel Museum & Google (September 26, 2011)
• Google to Help Digitise Madiba [Nelson Mandela] and Tutu Archives (March 8, 2011)
• “Yad Vashem and Google partner to preserve and share Holocaust archives” (January 26, 2011)
• Art Project, Powered by Google

Note: The article does not mention that Google’s project to digitize historical newspapers ended in May.
On a Related Note (Museums and Technology):

• NMC Horizon Report: 2011 Museum Edition

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Digital Preservation, News, Open Access