Open Library
The Open Library is an Internet Archive project that aspires to create one webpage corresponding to every book. It is paired with the Internet Archive's ambition to collect one copy of every book in existence. It was founded by Aaron Swartz, Brewster Kahle, Alexis Rossi, Anand Chitipothu, and Rebecca Malamud.
They have a constantly replenishing backlog of books to scan. To prioritize their efforts to what people want, they update the pages of books they have on hand and offer the opportunity to sponsor those books' scanning. This moves them up in the queue. The donation is tax deductible.
Normally, in-copyright books can only be checked out to one person at a time, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, this restriction was waived, forming the National Emergency Library.
Legal Challenge
In 2020 several major publishing houses filed a legal challenge to Open Library claiming mass copyright infringement, and challenging the basis for controlled digital lending. The legal matter is still ongoing.
Articles
- "Internet Archive founder turns to new information storage device – the book", The Guardian
- Crowd-Sourced Unlatching of Curricular Books: A Joint Pilot by the California State University, Knowledge Unlatched, and the Internet Archive
