by Derek Morrison, 6 July 2009
There was a most interesting feature about the Open Library initiative titled The Library that Never Closes in last week’s Guardian (2 July 2009) which I think is worth reading. Here’s a few snippets to encourage you to read the full article.
“Imagine books more as a networked object, rather than a single entity,” she suggests. “We start with this kernel and then we see what we can pile onto it … it’s a locus for all the information about a book that’s on the wider web.”
If the scheme gives researchers and students the chance to use Open Library in their work – referring to an OL page as a citation source, or building a bibliography using its tools – they could get a core audience that spreads the concept.
Despite its meek appearance, the library world is big business – and it is not clear that big libraries are particularly keen on giving away the keys to anyone just yet.
