[real-eyes] Documents of Library in Boston to Go on Web
- From: "Jose" <crunch1@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "real eyes list" <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:47:28 -0600
thought you all might want to read about this.
Documents of Library in Boston to Go on Web
By [5]JOHN MARKOFF
SAN FRANCISCO -- The historical record of the United States government
will soon be more accessible.
A digital library partnership, including two nonprofit organizations
and the Boston Public Library, is preparing to begin making digital
copies of the library's paper-based government documents collection,
which will then be made available on the Internet.
The project, which will take two years and require the hand scanning
of millions of pages of government hearings and related publications,
will cost an estimated $6 million, according to the project's
sponsors.
Boston Public Library librarians said they planned to begin by
digitizing the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings from
the 1950s, which is regularly sought after by its patrons.
The project is being undertaken by Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit
group seeking to open public access to government records, and the
Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based digital library.
The project is the brainchild of founders of the two organizations,
Carl Malamud and Brewster Kahle, and it is initially being financed by
a $250,000 grant from a foundation established by Mr. Kahle and his
wife, Mary Austin, and a matching grant from the Omidyar Network, a
support organization created by Pierre Omidyar, one of the founders of
[6]eBay.
Mr. Malamud said his goal is to digitize the entire United States
government documents collection, which has been estimated to include
up to 100 million pages of publications ranging from the Congressional
Record to the Federal Register.
The government documents scanning project is one of a series of
digitization efforts that Mr. Malamud has undertaken as part of his
plan to bring all federal government information online. He said that
he and Mr. Kahle thought they could get it done in two years and for
$6 million.
The Government Printing Office has been making its published materials
available online since 1994, said Gary G. Somerset, a spokesman for
the agency.
This summer Mr. Malamud embarked on a separate effort to [7]digitize
all federal case law, and he said he was now negotiating with two
private companies to purchase existing digital collections, which
would drastically shorten the time required for the undertaking.
He had originally planned to use optical character recognition
equipment to collect the data, which is now made available from
private companies for a fee. The government documents scanning project
might also be accelerated if a private online company agrees to sell
data to the project, he said.
His motivation is to make the workings of the government more
accessible at no cost: "This is society's operating system," he said.
The Boston Public Library has recently obtained a substantial
collection of Congressional hearing documents from Harvard, said Gail
Fithian, the library's government documents curator, and those would
serve as the initial material for the scanning project.
The Boston Public Library is also interested in scanning local Boston
and Massachusetts documents and is in the process of creating its own
digital archive.
The library has 10 digitizing systems, contributed by the Internet
Archive, that are being used to scan and digitize books and other
documents.
More recent government documents are already accessible through a
system called [8]GPO Access. They include the Congressional Record,
the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations.
The G.P.O. assists with the digitization of legacy documents that are
now available to the public only in printed form.
Public.Resource.Org's online collection includes 21 million copyright
records, 5 million G.P.O. pages as well as information from the
Securities and Exchange Commission, Patent Office and other federal
agencies.
Joshua24:15
"But as for me and my household,
We will serve the Lord."
Confidentiality Notice: This email message, including any attachments, is
for the sole use of the intended recipient(s), and may contain privileged or
confidential
information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is
prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender
by
replying to this email, and destroy all copies of the original message.
To subscribe or to leave the list, or to set other subscription options, go to
www.freelists.org/list/real-eyes
Other related posts:
- » [real-eyes] Documents of Library in Boston to Go on Web
