Google and the British Library recently sealed a deal that would allow the tech firm to scan some 250,000 copyright-free books and make them available through its Google Books services.

In a statement issued over the weekend, Google director for external relations Peter Barron said that the materials opened up by the British Library represent "an important part of the world's heritage and we're proud to be working with the British Library to open it up to millions of people in the U.K. and abroad."

The agreement, according to Barron, also showed that today's technology gives us "(not just) the ability to preserve history and culture for posterity, but also its ability to bring it to life in new ways."

With an estimated 14 million titles under its care, the British Library boasts of a book collection second only to the US Library of Congress, according to a report by PC Magazine on Monday, and the deal will give access to many of these books once the project has been completed, which Google estimates will require a numbers of years to conclude.

While Google will be wholly financing the digital transformation of the book titles, the contents can also be accessed by online users through the Europeana website, which British Library officials said will be a parallel project to be funded by the European Commission.

Upon the project's completion, some 40 million pages would have been scanned that will mostly comprised of books, journals and magazines that date back from 1700 to 1870 and will be made available in different European languages.

British Library chief executive Dame Lynne Brindley said in a statement that the institution was "delighted to be partnering with Google on this project and through this partnership believe that we are building on this proud tradition of giving access to anyone."

Both entities said that accessing the collection will not require any fees but British Library said that Google can post advertisements alongside the contents where it deems appropriate.

Brindley added that the core goal of the agreement is to "provide perpetual access to this historical material ... to anyone, anywhere, and at any time ... and we hope that our collections coupled with Google's know-how will enable us to achieve this aim."