Despite the fact that a federal court has delayed approval of the Google Book Search settlement (see the MobyLives report), and despite the fact that the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and a coalition of states attorneys general are investigating Google (see the report, the report, the report), and despite warnings from every major American organization of libraries (yep, MobyLives reported it), “the University of Michigan has signed up as the first library to participate in Google’s book-scanning project under the terms of Google’s proposed settlement with library groups,” reports Tom Krazit in this CNet News report.

Why would any respectable library sign up now, in the face of such opposition, and without the legal system clearing the deal yet? Why else — for the filthy luchre, of course: “In exchange for participating in the project,” reports Krazit, “Google plans to subsidize the cost of the university’s subscription to the digital library.”

The New York Times gives it another spin in the report by Miguel Helft. He says the move is a response to the “onslaught of opposition” and meant to show Google giving “libraries a degree of oversight over the prices Google could charge for its vast digital library.”

Helft speaks to several people who say the deal is good because it allows librariess to object to Google’s fees imposed on their own collections.

The only people Helft talks to, though, are signees to the deal — Google and Michigan executives — and a lone librairian who supports the deal. And of course, no one discusses why they didn’t want to wait until a judge — or, for that matter, three national investigations — concluded the deal was, you know, legal.