French delights for virtual bookworms

 Thousands of books soon online: The collection of the University of Lausanne is like a journey through the great works of Swiss and French-language literature. Soon, great works will be accessible to everyone worldwide, as the library of the University of Lausanne is the first French-language library to join the Google Book Search project. "Book lovers and literary researchers from Australia to the Antilles and from Mali to Vietnam will be able to discover and explore these books online," enthuses the Lausanne institution. Google and the University of Lausanne are working together to digitize the university's many thousands of royalty-free works so that anyone interested can view, search, read and even download the complete texts from the library's historical and special collections at any time. Library Director Hubert A. Villard says: "We are opening our library to the world in the truest sense of the word. The educational opportunities are phenomenal and we are excited about our work with Google on this project". The University of Lausanne joins Oxford University, Complutense Madrid, the Bavarian State Library and the Library of Barcelona as the fifth European library to join the project.