Tens of thousands of out-of-copyright books are set to become available online when Microsoft releases Live Search Books to beta on Wednesday.

Live Search Books (books.live.com) is initially restricted to only include non-copyright books scanned from the collections of the British Library, the University of California and the University of Toronto. Partnerships with the New York Public Library and the American Museum of Veterinary Medicine have also been announced.

Live Search Books' "Search inside a book" feature allows users to search the full texts of scanned books. Copyrighted books will be added to the collection later, but only those submitted to Microsoft by publishers or authors.

Microsoft has also updated the beta of Live Search Academic (academic.live.com) - adding millions of new articles, primarily bio-medical content. Live Search Academic now indexes thousands of academic journals in the computer science, engineering, physics, and bio-medical fields as well as theses and dissertations.

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