Brewster Kahle profile...

In the Economist.

Always forget he's a millionaire.

The relatively short profile includes some information about the Google Book Project as it relates to libraries as well as other institutions. It quotes a "Mr. Courant of the University of Michigan" and a "Ms.Moore of the University of Toronto."

The article concludes:

It may be that a lack of library funds, rather than Google, poses the biggest short-term threat to Mr Kahle’s dream. Google covers the cost of scanning libraries’ books. But to get into Mr Kahle’s archive, libraries must either do their own scanning or pay the archive to do it. And, like everyone else, libraries are feeling the financial squeeze at the moment.

But Mr Kahle is taking a very long-term view. Universal online access to all knowledge may not be “a goal that is going to be finished in our lifetime,” says Mr Kahle. “But if you pick a goal far enough out, people can align to it. I am not interested in building an empire. Our idea is to build the future.”