Google, along with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and 16 other universities, is developing a way to search scholarly papers via the Google Web site, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported last week.
Google and other participating institutions say that it is too soon to comment on the Chronicle article or what they are working on.
"We're not confirming anything at this time," Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said.
"The project is so preliminary that they don't think we're at the point to talk about it," added University of Oregon Libraries Department head Carol Hixson. "It sort of slipped out."
The Penn Library and the School of Engineering and Applied Science are developing a similar pilot project -- which has also not been announced to the public -- that will use an internal search engine to access faculty-submitted scholarly materials, according to Van Pelt Library Director Sandra Kerbel.
Beginning sometime this summer, Penn's scholarly archives will be searchable from the University Web site, the Library Web page and other locations on the Penn Web network.
Penn's project will also allow it to link to the Google site in the future.
"While Penn is not part of this specific pilot project [with Google], the architecture of our ... system will enable Penn to participate in such an initiative at any time," Digital Projects Librarian Delphine Khanna wrote in an e-mail interview.
Both Penn's pilot project and the Google/MIT project represent a new use of existing technology.
About 125 academic institutions use DSpace -- free archiving software that was created by MIT -- to provide digital storage places for academic papers, technical reports and other work by university professors.
Penn and the Google and MIT team are working to develop a search function for these resources. The University will use software similar to DSpace.
According to the Chronicle, the new search feature will appear on the Google Web site in a few months. Scholars will be able to select whether their work can be viewed by all Internet users or only people on their campus.
However, participating university officials emphasize that the Google project is far from complete.
William Jordan, acting associate director of information technology services at the University of Washington libraries, said that his school contributed records to the Google project.
"Maybe there is some useful way that Google can mine the data and present the results, but we don't know what will come out of it yet," he said.
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