Sign up to The Irish Times Archive (1859 - 2008)My Account »

OPINION: FOURTEEN YEARS ago, I published a book called Burgundy Stars: a Year in the Life of a Great French Restaurant. Despite warm reviews, sales were tepid and it soon went out of print. Today, you have to either go to the library and hope my take on haute cuisine is stocked or search in used book shops. I have moved on to work for Google and my book remains in copyright but almost impossible to find, writes BILL ECHIKSON

Last year, Google reached a groundbreaking agreement with American authors and publishers that aims to bring millions of these lost books back to life. If an American court approves, readers in the US will be able for the first time to search, preview and buy online access to a great number of out-of-print books that were scanned as part of Google Book Search. A new non-profit registry will be set up to locate these in-copyright-but-difficult-to-