Internet Archive's Modern Book Collection Now Tops 2 Million Volumes (archive.org) 19
The Internet Archive: The Internet Archive has reached a new milestone: 2 million. That's how many modern books are now in its lending collection -- available free to the public to borrow at any time, even from home. "We are going strong," said Chris Freeland, a librarian at the Internet Archive and director of the Open Libraries program. "We are making books available that people need access to online, and our patrons are really invested. We are doing a library's work in the digital era." The lending collection is an encyclopedic mix of purchased books, ebooks, and donations from individuals, organizations, and institutions. It has been curated by Freeland and other librarians at the Internet Archive according to a prioritized wish list that has guided collection development. The collection has been purpose-built to reach a wide base of both public and academic library patrons, and to contain books that people want to read and access online -- titles that are widely held by libraries, cited in Wikipedia and frequently assigned on syllabi and course reading lists.
"The Internet Archive is trying to achieve a collection reflective of great research and public libraries like the Boston Public Library," said Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive, who began building the diverse library more than 20 years ago. "Libraries from around the world have been contributing books so that we can make sure the digital generation has access to the best knowledge ever written," Kahle said. "These wide ranging collections include books curated by educators, librarians and individuals, that they see are critical to educating an informed populace at a time of massive disinformation and misinformation." The 2 million modern books are part of the Archive's larger collection of 28 million texts that include older books in the public domain, magazines, and documents. Beyond texts, millions of movies, television news programs, images, live music concerts, and other sound recordings are also available, as well as more than 500 billion web pages that have been archived by the Wayback Machine. Nearly 1.5 million unique patrons use the Internet Archive each day, and about 17,000 items are uploaded daily.
"The Internet Archive is trying to achieve a collection reflective of great research and public libraries like the Boston Public Library," said Brewster Kahle, digital librarian and founder of the Internet Archive, who began building the diverse library more than 20 years ago. "Libraries from around the world have been contributing books so that we can make sure the digital generation has access to the best knowledge ever written," Kahle said. "These wide ranging collections include books curated by educators, librarians and individuals, that they see are critical to educating an informed populace at a time of massive disinformation and misinformation." The 2 million modern books are part of the Archive's larger collection of 28 million texts that include older books in the public domain, magazines, and documents. Beyond texts, millions of movies, television news programs, images, live music concerts, and other sound recordings are also available, as well as more than 500 billion web pages that have been archived by the Wayback Machine. Nearly 1.5 million unique patrons use the Internet Archive each day, and about 17,000 items are uploaded daily.
You have to borrow for 1hr and read iin browser (Score:2)
Most of them anyway. If the archive has multiple copies scanned they'll lend out for two week blocks using Adobe Digital Editions. But ever since they tried to lend out beyond their warehouse storage - during the pandemic - and got sued, they've made it more difficult to borrow for two week blocks so you can sit down with an ereader and really read. Which is unfortunate. That said, gift horse, mouth, not staring and all that.
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Most of them anyway. If the archive has multiple copies scanned they'll lend out for two week blocks using Adobe Digital Editions. But ever since they tried to lend out beyond their warehouse storage - during the pandemic - and got sued, they've made it more difficult to borrow for two week blocks so you can sit down with an ereader and really read. Which is unfortunate. That said, gift horse, mouth, not staring and all that.
It's quite a shame that Greed came along to sue, during a pandemic.
If you want your country to scream "anti-education", that's certainly one way to do it.
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It's quite a shame that Greed came along to sue, during a pandemic.
Oh, bullshit. The Archive drastically overreached, and a lawsuit was the correct response. Note that many companies have made "friendly" moves during the current unpleasantness. The right way for the Archive to go about what their claimed objective was (getting textbooks into the hands of those who need it at a time when libraries were closed due to disease) would have been to work with the publishers, who may have reacted surprisingly favorably to what would be a short term grant on their part.
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It's quite a shame that Greed came along to sue, during a pandemic.
Oh, bullshit. The Archive drastically overreached, and a lawsuit was the correct response. Note that many companies have made "friendly" moves during the current unpleasantness. The right way for the Archive to go about what their claimed objective was (getting textbooks into the hands of those who need it at a time when libraries were closed due to disease) would have been to work with the publishers, who may have reacted surprisingly favorably to what would be a short term grant on their part.
Correct vs. right way? Nice contradiction you've got there. Like I said, it's a shame that Greed refused to work with the publishers to even explore that "surprisingly favorably" option, rather than let lawsuits fly.
Evictions and foreclosures are a "correct" response too. We have made many exceptions during this pandemic. Considerable ones. This, should have qualified for a temporary reprieve. As I said, anti-education. Hell, where's a mega-corp gazillionaires tax writeoff when you need it? Sponsori
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We have made many exceptions during this pandemic. Considerable ones. This, should have qualified for a temporary reprieve.
Yes, we have, and I agree that this should be one of them. However, those exceptions came as the result of legislation, or duly delegated executive authority. The Archive simply decided they were going to violate the law.
I couldn't buy TP for a couple of weeks. That didn't give me the right to break into the paper factory.
Care to explain why in the hell we allowed Greed to put licensing limits on that, as if there's a cap on the amount of people on the internet?
To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries; If you've g
How is this currently legal? (Score:3)
So am I correct to assume that the legality of this is because every digital copy is matched with a physical book? Even if this is so, didn't the movie industry fight and win against several companies trying to do this same thing with movies? I recall one company that rented remote dvd players loaded with actual dvds and still lost.
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So am I correct to assume that the legality of this is because every digital copy is matched with a physical book?
As we watch the world burn and desparately try and move towards a "green" planet, I can't wait for this "physical" argument to come to a head.
Let me get my environmentally-conscious solar-powered popcorn maker ready...
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As we watch the world burn and desparately try and move towards a "green" planet, I can't wait for this "physical" argument to come to a head.
Let me get my environmentally-conscious solar-powered popcorn maker ready...
The whole argument is somewhat indirectly premised on the assumption that physical copies wear out which is no longer really the case if the physical copies are stored and never directly accessed. A true library of digital titles would need a small fraction of the number of copies compared to a physical library even for best sellers and would never need to replace them. The current royalties paid to authors is based on a much larger volume of books being sold. On the flip side though the cost of printin
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The archive has a decent fig leaf in the fact that they're a library. Their digital lending initiative may or may not be lawful under current copyright law (it's arguable either way. There isn't explicit statutory authorization, but there is language that MAY allow it, and the "time shifting" carve outs created by the courts can be reasonably argued to allow format shifting (it's impossible to do the former without the latter). It definitely is within the spirit of the law (especially since they are a li
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The assholes at the archive making that move may have lost a major battle over copyright (if not the war) and should be ashamed of themselves.
Absolutely. It was a major strategic blunder and we're lucky that they survived it.
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Thank you, Internet Archive, for making us wiser. (Score:1)
Great job !
How does "lending" information make sense? (Score:1)
[Disclaimer: I do not criticize he Internt Archive, but the insani in which they play along.]
How would "lending" information even work?
Billy: Hey Timmy! I'm telling you Susy's dirty secret, if you promise to keep it secret, and will ... give it back ... at the end of the week? ... Sure thing! I will ... give it back ... now tell me (you fuckin retard, lol). ... ... ... ...
Timmy:
Billy: Hey Jackie,
Billy: Hey Amy,
Billy: Hey Jerome,
[Later] ...! Just don't tell Billy. The fuckin
Timmy: Hey Stan, Susy's secret is
Spines not scanned (Score:2)
I would like to browse like in a library, by books' spines.
But it appears the Internet Archive do not scan those, or at least they don't make the publicly visible.
Shame.
Data Point (Score:3)
C.D. West's "Liquid Piston Stirling Engines" (1983) is a seminal work in the field, and through the Internet Archive I was finally able to read it.
It's a great book! I modeled and am 3d printing the plastic engine on page 44 [archive.org] now. As soon as I finish testing it I'll upload it to Thingiverse for everyone to enjoy.
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Nice!
Archive.org is great,; cannot borrow on GNU/Linux (Score:2)
Where there's a Will (Score:3)
Well, I now know who I'm leaving my book collection to when I die.
Sure 99% of it is 'crap', science fiction and fantasy novels from the last century, but there are a few rarities in there.
I should probably take a look at their wish list, but I'm not sure when I'll get the time to browse 1.5 million titles to see if I have any of them. :-/