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The "Open Content Alliance" is an initiative by libraries to offer their books to be scanned online and presented in digital form. Other organizations like Google (GOOG), Microsoft (MSFT) and Yahoo (YHOO) have already been pursuing this field in hopes of getting more people using their search engines.

What the growing importance of the Open Content Alliance does is create a more competitive market for the scanning of electronic books, and forces competitors to respond to their presence.

At this time, the companies that do it pay for the process, while including an exclusive agreement that those searching for the books online can only have access to them through their respective search engines.

The Open Content Alliance exists to put books online that can be searched and found through any search engine a user chooses.

What's good about all this, is the importance of putting books online is getting done. The competition causes various businesses and non-profits to do things to make it more valuable to the end user.

For example, many libraries may not have the funds to scan the books, is which said to cost about $30 each to get completed. The paying of the process by companies allows important books to go online that otherwise wouldn't be available for years.

On the other hand, those libraries with access to funds, allow the books to go online and be available however someone wants to access them.

So all parties have a part to play at this time, and competition forces them to create what's best for those who will have access to them.

This is why capitalism and free markets are so important. It offers all sorts of opportunities and means of achieving goals that competition drives those involved to accomplish. In the end, the customer wins. And if the customer wins, those providing the service win as well. That's the way it should be.