Yesterday the Open Content Alliance marked its official launch with a party in San Francisco. As part of the occasion, it unveiled the Open Library, a working demo of the OCA vision. Click on a book cover to see the full text and options for printing, searching, or hearing an audio version.
When the OCA was first announced three weeks ago, it had 10 institutional members. Since then, 14 others have joined, including the Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Columbia University, Emory University, Johns Hopkins University Libraries, and McMaster University, Rice University, York University, and the Universities of British Columbia, Ottawa, Pittsburgh, and Virginia.
MSN Search today announced its intention to launch MSN Book Search, which will support MSN Search’s efforts to help people find exactly what they’re looking for on the Web, including the content from books, academic materials, periodicals and other print resources. MSN Search intends to launch an initial beta of this offering next year. MSN also intends to join the Open Content Alliance (OCA) and work with the organization to scan and digitize publicly available print materials, as well as work with copyright owners to legally scan protected materials.
Brewster Kahle announced that MSN is "committed to kick off their support by funding the digitization of 150,000 books in 2006!"
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/26/2005 08:37:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
