Post on 27-Mar-2015
Million Book Project Today
Gloriana St. ClairOctober 21, 2003
OCLC
Thesis
• The future of libraries is digital.
• Development and growth of an international library project
• Opportunities and challenges in collaboration, content, and sustainability
Main Points
• Why?• Genesis: Leaders,
Partners • Realities: Collections
and logistics • Dreams: Comments
about the vision
Why?
“Libraries are very unevenly distributed across the world and within countries. Even in the U.S. there are enormous differences. Now technology makes possible a universal world library in which every
person has access to anything written.”
Why?
“In the end, this will be Vannevar Bush’s Memex.”- Michael Lesk, Internet Archive
Bush, “As We May Think” Atlantic Monthly (July 1945)
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/computer/bushf.htm
Genesis
Leaders
• Co-Directors: Raj Reddy and Gloriana St. Clair
• Michael Shamos – intellectual property; e-commerce
• Jaime Carbonell – machine translation; information mining; auto-summarization
Leaders
• Gabrielle Michalek – pioneered 5 digitization projects
• Erika Linke – collections; intellectual property
• Denise Troll Covey – digital libraries; user studies
Partners
• National Science Foundation
2001 $665,6002002 $1,000,0002003 $1,000,0002004 $1,000,000
for equipment and travel
Partners
• Internet Archive
Partners
• Carnegie Mellon University• Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh• Indiana University• National Agriculture Library• OCLC• Penn State University• University of California,
Berkeley• University of Washington
Partners
China: Beijing University • Chinese Academy of Science • Fudan University • Ministry of Education of China • Nanjing University • State Planning Commission of China • Tsinghua University • Zhejiang University
India: Arulmigu Kalasalingam College of Engineering • Goa University • Indian Institute of Science • Indian Institute of Information Technology–Allahabad • International Institute of Information Technology–Hyderabad • Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation • Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams • Shanmugha Arts, Science, Technology and Research Academy • University of Pune
At an Internet café in Hyderabad
Collections
• BCL - 60,000 “best books”• U.S. government documents • Partners’ unique cultural
treasures• University press negotiations• Copyright clearance projects
for targeted subject areas
New Collection Vision
• Half of the collection might be academic press books in copyright but out-of-print
Copyright Permission Research
Success Rates
• Feasibility Study (1999) - 22%• Academic & scholarly presses
(to date) - 40% • Posner Project (to date) - 60%
Possible U Press Partners
• National Academy Press• MIT Press• Harvard University Press -
list of BCL books• Need electronic version of
the 1989 BCL
Constraints
• The collection must be composed of many sub-collections.
• Librarians will be consulted to ensure solid selection criteria.
• Copyright is a serious barrier to an effective effort.
Research Initiatives
• Machine translation
• Massive distributed database
• Storage formats• Use of digital
libraries• Distribution and
sustainability
• Security• Search engines• Image processing• Optical Character
Recognition (OCR)
• Language processing
• Copyright laws
Distribution and Sustainability
•OCLC?
LatestDevelopments
• China received funding• Over 30,000 books available
@ http://www.dli.gov.in/home.
htm use Internet Explorer!• Million Book Project FAQ @
http://www.library.cmu.edu/ Libraries/MBP_FAQ.html
Thank you & Q&A
Gloriana St. ClairDean of University
LibrariesCarnegie Mellon
Universitygstclair@andrew.cmu.edu
412-268-2447