Open Library
Open Library homepage in September 2011
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Web address | openlibrary.org |
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Slogan | One web page for every book. |
Commercial? | no |
Type of site
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Digital library index |
Registration | free |
Available in | English |
Launched | 2006 |
Revenue | donation |
Alexa rank
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16,427 (April 2014[update])[1] |
Current status | Active |
Open Library is an online project intended to create "one web page for every book ever published". Created by Aaron Swartz,[2][3] Brewster Kahle [4] among others, Open Library is a project of the non-profit Internet Archive and has been funded in part by a grant from the California State Library and the Kahle/Austin Foundation.
It provides access to many public domain and out-of-print books, which can be read online.
Contents
Book database and digital lending library[edit]
Its book information is collected from the Library of Congress, other libraries, and Amazon.com, as well as from user contributions through a Wiki-like interface.[3] If books are available in digital form, a button labelled "Read" appears next to its catalog listing. Links to where books can be purchased or borrowed are also provided.
There are different entities in the database:
- authors
- works (which are the aggregate of all books with the same title and text)
- editions (which are different publications of the corresponding works)
Open Library claims to have 6 million authors and 20 million books (not works), and about one million public domain books available as digitized books.[5] Tens of thousands of modern books were made available from 4[6] and then 150 libraries and publishers[7] for digital lending.
Technical[edit]
Open Library began in 2006 with Aaron Swartz as the original engineer and leader of Open Library's technical team.[2][3] The project was led by George Oates from April 2009 to December 2011.[8] Oates was responsible for a complete site redesign during her tenure.[9]
The site was redesigned and relaunched in May 2010. Its codebase is on GitHub.[10] The site uses Infobase, its own database framework based on PostgreSQL, and Infogami, its own Wiki engine written in Python.[11] The source code to the site is published under the Affero General Public License, version 3.[12][13]
Books for the blind and dyslexic[edit]
The website was relaunched adding ADA compliance and offering over 1 million modern and older books to the print disabled in May 2010[14] using the DAISY Digital Talking Book.[15] Under federal law in the United States, libraries are allowed to make copyrighted books available to people with disabilities so newer titles can become available.[citation needed]
See also[edit]
- Online Computer Library Center – creator of WorldCat
- LibraryThing
- Google Book Search
- Amazon.com
- Online Public Access Catalog
- Free Software licensing
- List of AGPL web applications
References[edit]
- ^ "Openlibrary.org Site Info". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2014-04-01.
- ^ a b "A library bigger than any building". BBC News. 2007-07-31. Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ a b c Grossman, Wendy M (2009-01-22). "Why you can't find a library book in your search engine". The Guardian (London). Retrieved 2010-07-06.
- ^ "Aaron Swartz: howtoget". Aaronsw.jottit.com. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
- ^ "About Us". Openlibrary.org. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ Fowler, Geoffrey A. (2010-06-29). "Libraries Have a Novel Idea - WSJ". Online.wsj.com. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "Internet Archive Forums: In-Library eBook Lending Program Launched". Archive.org. 2011-02-22. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "George". Openlibrary.org. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ Oates, George (2010-03-17). "Announcing the Open Library redesign « The Open Library Blog". Blog.openlibrary.org. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "internetarchive/openlibrary · GitHub". Github.com. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "About the Technology". Openlibrary.org. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "Developers / Licensing". Openlibrary.org. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "openlibrary/LICENSE at master · internetarchive/openlibrary · GitHub". Github.com. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "Project puts 1M books online for blind, dyslexic | UTSanDiego.com". Signonsandiego.com. 2010-05-05. Retrieved 2015-06-26.
- ^ "Welcome to Daisy Books for the Print Disabled". Internet Archive. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
External links[edit]
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