The British Library as entered into a deal with internet search giant, Google, which will make one of the biggest collections of books and pamphlets in the world available to the internet users.

The deal will include Google’s search engine to offer text results from sources dating back to the 18th century. Internet users from around the world will be able to search and access huge amounts of copyright free content online for the first time.

The British Library described its agreement with Google as a “strategic partnership”. The deal has been officially announced at an event hosted by Dame Lynne Brindley, the chief executive of the British Library and Peter Barron, Google head of external relations.

Google has already signed similar deals, which does not involve any financial exchanges, with more than 40 libraries around the world in order to make more data available to the internet users.

The internet giant bares the cost of digitization of all of the texts. It produces a copy for the owner and one for itself.