Google is expanding its serach engine by adding a 'reading room' with books from five well-known academic libraries including Harvard, Stanford, The University of Michigan, Oxford University and the New York Public Library.

Two of the libraries, Michigan and Stanford have agreed to put all of their collections to Google to be scanned. The University of Michigan library alone contains approximately 7 million books. Google is trying to complete the scanning of the collection in six years.

'This is the day the world changes,' said John Wilkin, a University of Michigan librarian working with Google. 'It will be disruptive because some people will worry that this is the beginning of the end of libraries. But this is something we have to do to revitalize the profession and make it more meaningful.'

Google's search engine now has another hand up on rivals like MSN and Yahoo in the ongoing competition for search engine technology.

'It's a significant opportunity to bring our material to the rest of the world,' said Paul LeClerc, president of the New York Public Library. 'It could solve an old problem: If people can't get to us, how can we get to them?'

Potential problems still exist. The books will be part of the same search engine as websites that are currently available. As a result, they could be listed very low on the list and ignored. Still, if used properly, this search engine will bring additional knowledge to millions worldwide.