Google will announce an agreement today with some of America's leading research libraries -- including the New York Public Library system -- to begin converting their holdings into digital files that could then be accessible to Google's search technology. The goal of the project, according to the New York Times, is to "expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world's books, scholarly papers and special collections." In addition to NYPL, other institutions involved in the endeavor include Harvard, Michigan and Stanford. The cost of the project is staggering -- upwards of $150 million, according to one estimate in the article.