Author Archives: jeff kaplan

In-Library eBook Lending Program Launched

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Internet Archive and Library Partners Develop Joint Collection of 80,000+ eBooks To Extend Traditional In-Library Lending Model

San Francisco, CA – Today, a group of libraries led by the Internet Archive announced a new, cooperative 80,000+ eBook lending collection of mostly 20th century books on OpenLibrary.org, a site where it’s already possible to read over 1 million eBooks without restriction. During a library visit, patrons with an OpenLibrary.org account can borrow any of these lendable eBooks using laptops, reading devices or library computers. This new twist on the traditional lending model could increase eBook use and revenue for publishers.

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“As readers go digital, so are our libraries,” said Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. “It’s fabulous to work with such a great group of 150 forward-thinking libraries.” (See the list of participating libraries below.)

This new digital lending system will enable patrons of participating libraries to read books in a web browser. “In Silicon Valley, iPads and other reading devices are hugely popular. Our partnership with the Internet Archive and OpenLibrary.org is crucial to achieving our mission – to meet the reading needs of our library visitors and our community,” said Linda Crowe, Executive Director of the Peninsula Library System.

A recent survey of libraries across North America was conducted by Unisphere Research and Information Today, Inc. (ITI). It reported that of the 1,201 libraries canvassed, 73% are seeing increased demand for digital resources with 67% reporting increased demand for wireless access and 62% seeing a surge in demand for web access.

American libraries spend $3-4 billion each year on publishers’ products. “I’m not suggesting we spend less, I am suggesting we spend smarter by buying and lending more eBooks,” asserts Kahle. He is also encouraging libraries worldwide to join in the expansion of this pool of purchased and digitized eBooks so their patrons can borrow from this larger collection.

How it Works

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Any OpenLibrary.org account holder can borrow up to 5 eBooks at a time, for up to 2 weeks. Books can only be borrowed by one person at a time. People can choose to borrow either an in-browser version (viewed using the Internet Archive’s BookReader web application), or a PDF or ePub version, managed by the free Adobe Digital Editions software. This new technology follows the lead of the Google eBookstore, which sells books from many publishers to be read using Google’s books-in-browsers technology. Readers can use laptops, library computers and tablet devices including the iPad.

What Participating Libraries Are Saying
The reasons for joining the initiative vary from library to library. Judy Russell, Dean of University Libraries at the University of Florida, said, “We have hundreds of books that are too brittle to circulate. This digitize-and-lend system allows us to provide access to these older books without endangering the physical copy.”

Digital lending also offers wider access to one-of-a-kind or rare books on specific topics such as family histories – popular with genealogists. This pooled collection will enable libraries like the Boston Public Library and the Allen County Public Library in Indiana to share their materials with genealogists around the state, the country and the world.

“Genealogists are some of our most enthusiastic users, and the Boston Public Library holds some genealogy books that exist nowhere else,” said Amy E. Ryan, President of the Boston Public Library. “This lending system allows our users to search for names in these books for the first time, and allows us to efficiently lend some of these books to visitors at distant libraries.”

“Reciprocal sharing of genealogy resources is crucial to family history research. The Allen County Public Library owns the largest public genealogy collection in the country, and we want to make our resources available to as many people as possible. Our partnership in this initiative offers us a chance to reach a wider audience,” said Jeffrey Krull, director of the Allen County Public Library.
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Publishers selling their eBooks to participating libraries include Cursor and OR Books. Books purchased will be lent to readers as well as being digitally preserved for the long-term. This continues the traditional relationship and services offered by publishers and libraries.

“Libraries are our allies in creating the best range of discovery mechanisms for writers and readers—enabling open and browser-based lending through the Internet Archive means more books for more readers, and we’re thrilled to do our part in achieving that,” said Richard Nash, founder of Cursor.

John Oakes, founder of OR Books said, “We’re always on the lookout for innovative solutions to solve the conundrum of contemporary publishing, and we are excited to learn about the Internet Archive’s latest project. For us, it’s a way to extend our reach to the crucial library market. We look forward to the results. ”

For More Information
Here are a few eBooks that are only available to people in participating libraries.
Libraries interested in partnering in this program should contact: info@archive.org.
To use this service, please visit a participating library: www.openlibrary.org.
For a list of participating libraries, see below.

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List of Participating Libraries

Aboite Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Dupont Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Georgetown Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Grabill Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Hessen Cassel Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Little Turtle Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Main Library, Allen County Public Library
Monroeville Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
New Haven Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Pontiac Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Shawnee Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Tecumseh Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Waynedale Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Woodburn Branch Library, Allen County Public Library
Adams Street Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Brighton Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Charlestown Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Codman Square Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Connolly Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Dudley Branch Library, Boston Public Library
East Boston Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Egleston Square Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Faneuil Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Fields Corner Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Grove Hall Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Honan-Allston Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Hyde Park Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Jamaica Plain Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Lower Mills Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Mattapan Branch Library, Boston Public Library
North End Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Orient Heights Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Parker Hill Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Roslindale Branch Library, Boston Public Library
South Boston Branch Library, Boston Public Library
South End Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Uphams Corner Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Washington Village Branch Library, Boston Public Library
West End Branch Library, Boston Public Library
West Roxbury Branch Library, Boston Public Library
Internet Archive
MBLWHOI Library, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Atherton Library, Atherton, California
Bay Shore Library, Daly City, California
Belmont Library, Belmont, California
Brisbane Library, Brisbane, California
Burlingame Public Library, Burlingame, California
Burlingame Library Easton Branch, Burlingame, California
Cañada College Library, Redwood City, California
College of San Mateo Library, San Mateo, California
East Palo Alto Library, East Palo Alto, California
Fair Oaks Library, Redwood City, California
Foster City Library, Foster City, California
Grand Avenue Branch Library, South San Francisco, California
Half Moon Bay Library, Half Moon Bay, California
Hillsdale Branch Library, San Mateo, California
John Daly Library, Daly City, California
Marina Public Library, San Mateo, California
Menlo Park Library, Menlo Park, California
Menlo Park Library Belle Haven Branch, Menlo Park, California
Millbrae Library, Millbrae, California
Pacifica Sanchez Library, Pacifica, California
Pacifica Sharp Park Library, Pacifica, California
Portola Valley Library, Portola Valley, California
Redwood City Public Library, Redwood City, California
Redwood Shores Branch Library, Redwood City, California
San Bruno Library, San Bruno, California
San Carlos Library, San Carlos, California
San Mateo Public Library, San Mateo, California
Schaberg Library, Redwood City, California
Serramonte Main Library, Daly City, California
Skyline College Library, San Bruno, California
South San Francisco Public Library, South San Francisco, California
Westlake Library, Daly City, California
Woodside Library, Woodside, California
Anza Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Bayview/Anna E. Waden Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Bernal Heights, San Francisco Public Library
Chinatown/Him Mark Lai Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Eureka Valley/Harvey Milk Memorial Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Excelsior, San Francisco Public Library
Glen Park Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Golden Gate Valley Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Ingleside Branch, San Francisco Public Library
San Francisco Public Library, Main
Marina, San Francisco Public Library
Merced Branch Library, San Francisco Public Library
Mission, San Francisco Public Library
Mission Bay, San Francisco Public Library
Noe Valley/Sally Brunn Branch, San Francisco Public Library
North Beach Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Ocean View, San Francisco Public Library
Ortega, San Francisco Public Library
Park Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Parkside, San Francisco Public Library
Portola Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Potrero Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Presidio Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Richmond/Senator Milton Marks Branch, San Francisco Public Library
Sunset, San Francisco Public Library
Visitacion Valley, San Francisco Public Library
West Portal, San Francisco Public Library
Western Addition, San Francisco Public Library
The Urban School of San Francisco
Augustana Campus Library, University of Alberta
Bibliothèque Saint-Jean (BSJ), University of Alberta
Cameron Library, University of Alberta
Herbert T. Coutts (Education & Physical Education) Library, University of Alberta
Rutherford Library, University of Alberta
John A. Weir Memorial Law Library, University of Alberta
John W. Scott Health Sciences Library, University of Alberta
Winspear Business Reference Library, University of Alberta
Architecture and Fine Arts Library, University of Florida
Education Library, University of Florida
Health Science Center Library, University of Florida
Borland Library, University of Florida
Veterinary Medicine Reading Room, University of Florida
Allen H. Neuharth Journalism and Communications Library, University of Florida
Library West, University of Florida
Marston Science Library, University of Florida
Mead Library, University of Florida
Music Library, University of Florida
Smathers Library (East), University of Florida
Robarts Library, University of Toronto
Gerstein Science Information Centre, University of Toronto
Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies, Victoria University
E J Pratt Library, Victoria University
Emmanuel College Library, Victoria University

Jules Verne

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A colleague here at Internet Archive suggested that I post on the birthday of the French author Jules Verne.  He wrote about space, air and underwater travel before practical means of those types of travel had been invented. He is referred to as one of the Fathers of Science Fiction.

We have quite a few of his works at archive.org in a variety of mediatypes.

Starting from inside the planet and working out:

Journey To The Center Of The Earth

A librivox recording of the book
http://www.archive.org/details/ajourneytothecen19513gut

A text version
http://www.archive.org/details/AJourneyToTheCenterOfTheEarth

20,000 Leagues Under The Seas

A Disney version is available for browserlending:
http://www.archive.org/details/20000leaguesunde00walt

A 1916 silent movie:
http://www.archive.org/details/20000LeaguesUndertheSea

An old time radio CBS Radio Adventure Theater broadcast:
http://www.archive.org/details/20000LeaguesUnderTheSea_965

A librivox audio recording:
http://www.archive.org/details/20000_leagues_under_the_seas_librivox

Around The World In 80 Days

A librivox recording:
http://www.archive.org/details/around_the_world1_librivox

A Gutenberg Junior book text version:
http://www.archive.org/stream/80day10a/80day10a.txt

and last but not least, wallpapers from the Jackie Chan Disney movie:
http://www.archive.org/details/tucows_365552_Around_the_World_in_80_Days_-_1

All Around The Moon

A Gutenberg Project text:
http://www.archive.org/details/allaroundthemoon16457gut

Other texts include The Works of Jules Verne:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=Works%20of%20Jules%20Verne%3A%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts%20AND%20sponsor%3AMSN

And an audio recording of Master Of The World:
http://www.archive.org/details/master_of_world_mfs_librivox

A number of his works can be found in French as well:
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22Jules%20Verne%22

Enjoy the journeys.

-Jeff Kaplan

All Icelandic literature to go online?

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Þorsteinn Hallgrímsson, formerly of the National Library of Iceland, had a big idea:  digitize all Icelandic literature all the way to the current day and make it available to everyone interested in reading it. The Internet Archive was eager to be a part of this bold vision. I am in Iceland now, and because the financial crisis and Icelandic reaction to the US Department of Justice’s subpoenaing the tweets and Facebook account of a sitting member of the Icelandic Parliament, this project may have the momentum it needs to happen.

Ingibjörg Steinunn Sverrisdóttir, the National Librarian, and Katrín Jakobsdóttir, the Minister of Culture, met to discuss this possibility this week. I have met with several other ministers and parliamentarians in the last few days to discuss how this could be done.

The total literature of Iceland is under 50,000 books, which is easily scannable in 2 years by 12 people using the scribe scanners of the Internet Archive. David Lesperance, a lawyer from Canada who has helped support the Room to Read project, has offered to fundraise for this project; the Internet Archive has offered scanning technology, training, and backend software; and the Library has offered to administer the project. A digital lending system could be a way that they decide to limit access to a book to one person at a time in order to balance the interests of the writers and publishers while still having some access to everything from anywhere forever for free. Egill Helgason, of the Icelandic TV network, interviewed Brewster about this (photo below, video on the Archive).

If they decide to go ahead, Iceland could be the first country to have its complete literature go online. Fingers crossed.

The next step beyond this that is interesting to many here is to have Iceland become a “Switzerland of Bits,” where the laws will help protect the historical record from foreign or corporate danger. This is being promoted by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of parliament. The Internet Archive works with many libraries around the world, and everyone wants to make sure that the digital copies are safe for the long term. Iceland is taking steps to be a good place for this.

As an aside, with all their inexpensive “green” electricity from their hydro electric and geothermal plants, I found it interesting that they are growing some vegetables under lights in the long winters as a way to become more self sufficient. With LED lights that can be tuned to produce specific wavelengths at different parts of the growth cycle, this approach could be a fairly energy efficient way to grow food for their people.

-Brewster Kahle

Meeting with the Prime Minister of Greece

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As an Archive first, Brewster Kahle and June Goldsmith met with the Prime Minister of Greece, the Minister of Culture, and the Minister of Education, and their respective teams as a member of 8 outsiders for 6 hours last friday to talk about educational technologies. We met in their equivalent of the White House. We were honored to be invited, but floored that there would be such dedicated time devoted to the subject at such a high level. It was heartening to see the Prime Minister and these top Ministers discuss and change their opinions based on studies and experiences relayed by domain experts that have no financial levers on Greek power.

We talked about reading tablets, digital lending programs, smart whiteboards, and digitizing their libraries. The National Library of Greece has approximately one million volumes in it, and about 7,000 to 8,000 new books are published in Greek each year.

As is widely known it is a difficult time in Greece because of the monetary crisis, and this was apparent in the streets because of strikes and graffiti.

I hope something comes of this meeting, but at least we were honored to have the chance to advise such a group.

– Brewster Kahle

“The e-book thing isn’t happening, it has happened.”

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The ALA Midwinter held its annual meeting in San Diego on January 8, 2011. Moderated by Rick Weingarten, former director of ALA’s Office for Information Technology Policy, the panel featured Internet Archive founder and digital librarian Brewster Kahle; Sue Polanka, head of reference and instruction at Wright State University and author of the e-book blog No Shelf Required; and Tom Peters, CEO of TAP Information Services.

You can watch video of the panel discussion at http://www.archive.org/details/alamidwinter2011. There is also an HD version.

A nice writeup of the conference held in San Diego, CA on January 8, 2011:
At ALA Midwinter, Brewster Kahle, Librarians Ponder The E-book Future

From the article:

‘“The e-book thing isn’t happening,” Kahle, noted “it has happened.” Kahle, who founded the Open Content Alliance, and Open Library project, a digitization program, offered a strong message to librarians: don’t let a few powerful corporations take control of the digital future. He expressed his longstanding concern over Google’s efforts to scan collections “and sell it back to us,” and urged libraries not to give up their traditional roles. “What libraries do is buy stuff, and lend it out,” he said, suggesting that libraries “digitize what we have to, and buy what we can,” but not to let the promise of licensed access turn libraries into agents for a few major corporations. “We do so at our peril.” He also urged more dialogue with publishers and vendors about the future of digital content and the role of libraries—but he also urged bold action.’

-posted by Jeff Kaplan

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

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On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day I found a number of items of interest. I’ve included some descriptions written by the uploaders.

“I Have A Dream” speech from August 28, 1963
Often referred to as one of the greatest speeches in American history.

The March On Washington (1963):
Scenes from Civil Rights March in Washington, D.C., August 1963. People walking up sidewalk; gathering on Mall, standing, singing. Lincoln Memorial with crowds gathered around reflecting pool. People singing and clapping at speakers platform. Speakers, including Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Crowd swaying, singing, holding hands.

Integration Report I (1960):
A documentary showing sit-ins, marches, boycotts and rallies in 1959 and 1960. Includes such events as the first mass marches in Montgomery, Alabama, reactions against police brutality in Brooklyn and protests against the prejudiced treatment of Negroes in court.

Democracy Now! Monday, January 18, 2010:
Today is the federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King. He was born January 15th, 1929. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He was just thirty-nine years old. While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of US foreign policy and the Vietnam War. We play his “Beyond Vietnam” speech, which he delivered at New York’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, as well as his last speech, “I Have Been to the Mountain Top,” that he gave on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated.

The New Negro (1957). An interview with Martin Luther King Jr.: Guests: Martin Luther King with J. Waites Waring.

-Jeff Kaplan

Montana State Library Adopts the Internet Archive As Its Institutional Repository

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The Montana State Library (MSL) has just completed moving 3,070 born-digital state publications from OCLC’s CONTENTdm to the Internet Archive.  This is a key piece of the Montana State Library’s institutional repository for state publications now hosted by the Internet Archive (IA). The born digital state publications are integrated with two other pieces of MSL’s institutional repository at IA:

  1. IA is hosting, as part of its free library, a growing number of Montana state publications newly digitized by IA under contract to MSL. This digitization project will take several years to complete given staffing limits.  Nine thousand state publications and nearly one million pages have now been digitized.  Ultimately, MSL expects to digitize 55,000 print items dating from the 1870s.
  2. MSL has contracted with IA’s Archive-It team to crawl and archive state agency web sites. This partnership has significantly improved MSL’s capture of state publications as compared to the previous manual methods. For example, the archived publications are accessible by full-text search.  Publications up to 10 MB are indexed. MSL has branded the web archive piece of its institutional repository, Archive Montana. Because web pages and linked state publications are crawled regularly, Archive Montana also provides a history of state publications in their web context.

As MSL began evaluating whether to commit the born digital piece to IA, MSL staff already knew that we could place links to IA display pages from state publication MARC records. During the evaluation, we learned the metadata exposed on the display pages is from a meta.xml file uploaded, integrated, and stored at IA with each digital object.  The meta.xml files are crosswalked from MSL’s MARC records in two-steps.  In the first step, MSL builds the meta.xml with customized fields it wants to appear on the display pages.  Then, IA puts the finishing touches on the meta.xml to ensure standard fields are included.  The content of the meta.xml is then indexed for search.  So, search at IA is metadata driven with full-text search available in PDFs and the Read Online format.

MSL also came to understand the riches of the variety of formats produced and made accessible by IA display pages – PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Daisy, DjVU, and Read Online.  Read Online has a new accessibility feature that reads aloud, providing a valuable option for patrons. In addition, IA can handle many other formats, such as audio and video.  Patrons can quickly access and download materials or read online.  MSL can brand its landing and display pages.  In addition, IA enables repositories to articulate usage rights to patrons.

To support the IA display pages, there are effective metadata management tools. Plus, IA has a capable backup/preservation infrastructure.  In summary, we found IA to be a versatile digital library.  And, not insignificantly, IA is a library, officially recognized by the State of California.  Given these findings, the Montana State Library realized IA could serve as its institutional repository and so began the process of uploading its born-digital content.

MSL uploaded born-digital state publications in batches by writing basic scripts to work with batch utilities at the IA.  IA assigned software engineer, Hank Bromley, to advise the project.  Hank was both very helpful and articulate.  If the reader would like more information on how MSL completed the project, there is more information in the IA text forum or feel free to contact MSL Library Information Services division.

State publications use has increased significantly since so many publications are now available digitally.  In a recent week, 5,042 items were downloaded from of our current collection of 11,999 state publications at IA.  These 5,042 state publications were downloaded 6,827 times.  Having an institutional repository at the Internet Archive has enabled the Montana State Library to extend the use of Montana state publications.

-Chris Stockwell for Montana State Library, 01/04/2011

Brewster Kahle receives the Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award

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Brewster Kahle and Zoia Horn

On December 17, 2010 Brewster Kahle received the Zoia Horn Intellectual Freedom Award for successfully challenging a National Security Letter (NSL) issued by the FBI that demanded personal information about a user of  Internet Archive’s site, archive.org.

You can see the award presentation and hear Brewster recount the entire ordeal.

A number of articles were written about it at the time including:

FBI Backs Off From Secret Order for Data After Lawsuit

Brewster Kahle offers a cookbook for fighting security letters

From the articles:
“What we wanted to do out of this was to leave a very public cookbook for how to push back. That was our goal in our negotiations with the FBI. We would not have settled without being able to talk about what the letters look like, how to push back and who to call.” -Brewster Kahle

Zoia Horn presented the award and spoke of her own ordeal as the first librarian to be jailed for refusing to divulge information that violated her belief in intellectual freedom during the 1972 conspiracy trial of the “Harrisburg Seven” anti-war activists.

You can also see photos of the lunch event at Internet Archive prior to the presentation in the great hall.

-Jeff Kaplan

How Montana State Library Uploaded Batches of Digital Objects to the Internet Archive

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by Chris Stockwell for Montana State Library, 12/29/2010

Introduction

The Montana State Library (MSL) last year moved a copy of its collection of 3000 born digital state publications to the Internet Archive (IA). Since MSL will be continuing to upload and integrate born digital publications to the Internet Archive, we encourage constructive comment. Also, MSL would be happy to answer questions about what we did. Contact the Library Information Services division.

It was a natural progression for MSL to upload and integrate its born digital state publications to the Internet Archive. The Internet Archive already is digitizing Montana’s print state publications under contract. After the items are digitized, IA provides public access to them through its free digital library with an MSL logo. IA is officially recognized as a library by California. Also, IA’s Archive-It team archives Montana state agency web sites under contract. Montana State Library considers IA to be its institutional repository for its primary state publications collection…

…Read the entire post on archive.org

Visit the Montana State Library collection

Go Books in Browsers from Google!

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We are excited to see commercial books from many publishers being made available through web browser technology from Google eBookstore. As a standards based system, reading in a browser offers an opportunity for many more people to actively participate in the evolving digital book ecology.

The advantage of “books in browsers” over dedicated devices and even app store-based selling is that books can come from any website, read on many more devices, and be findable with standard search technologies.

The Google eBook Reader

Buying books that are delivered in a browser is now being demonstrated on a massive scale by Google. This is great news as it shows that the security measures offered are good enough for commercial players.

Lending books through a browser that recreates the traditional library-check-out system was demonstrated at the Books in Browsers 2010 summit at the Internet Archive. Lending and vending of books using browsers can pave the way for many winners:

Authors can find wider distribution for their work.
Publishers both big and small can now distribute books directly to readers.
Book sellers can find new and larger audiences for their products.
Device makers can offer access to millions of books instantly.
Libraries can continue to loan books in the way that patrons expect.
Readers could start to get universal access to all knowledge.

I am especially excited to see the possibilities in platform independent social reading and beautifully designed ebooks that could come from browser based books.

-brewster