Digitised Text for Posterity and Enjoyment
October 18, 2009The Joy of Discovery
I’ve always been a bit in love with the idea of the electronic book. Even as a child, when ebooks didn’t exist in my world except as an idea from the pages of teen science fiction novels, the idea captivated my imagination. Little did I know then that the ebook was already in its infancy. Now there are multiple projects dedicated to the digitisation, archiving and dissemination of texts that date back about as far back as writing does.
A late bloomer to the electronic age, it was not until about ten years ago that I first came to the world of digitised text in the form of documents and novels.
In the middle of the night, writing an essay for a contemporary world history subject that I didn’t really understand, I decided in a panic that what I really needed, more than anything, was to read a copy of The Treaty of Versailles. With my dinosaur PC running at capacity, I cranked up the ancient dial-up modem, turned off the ‘view images’ option in my web browser to move things along, and crossed my fingers. Much to my delight, at the top of my search results was a complete copy of The Treaty of Versailles, unabridged, digitised and indexed, courtesy of Yale Law School’s Avalon Project. I thought: I’m saved! And, although my wide-eyed wonder at the availability of information has subsided, I’ve returned to sites like the Avalon Project ever since. I’ve also put more thought into what makes it possible for these projects to exist.
The Avalon Project
The Avalon Project strives to make available in digital form all historical documents relevant to the areas of law, history and diplomacy. With an index dating back to 4000 BCE, it appears they’ve covered most documents dating from the advent of the written word onwards.
While the documents provided by Avalon are a tremendously useful resource, my heart lies with Project Gutenberg.
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg was founded by Michael S. Hart in 1971 with a grant to use the Xerox Sigma V mainframe at the Materials Research Lab of the University of Illinois. Housing the largest collection of free ebooks, and run by volunteers, Project Gutenberg’s mission is to digitise and archive cultural works of all kinds, make them as freely available as possible, and encourage further creation and distribution of ebooks.
There are around 30,000 books available from Project Gutenberg’s online catalogue, with about 70,000 more works available through project partners and affiliates, across a range of languages and countries. In order to offer ebooks for free, texts from Project Gutenberg are generally restricted to those available in the public domain. A note on the project’s home page reminds us that it is operated under US copyright law and that anyone outside the US should be familiar with the copyright law particular to their own country.
Copyright and Intellectual Property
Recognising a creator’s right over their work is important, but there is a need to balance this with equity of public access to information. The general rule of intellectual copyright seems to be that it holds for the life of the creator, plus a certain number of years (that varies between countries) following their death. With copyright increasingly benefiting corporations, rather than individuals, there is a danger that the time before a work reaches the public domain will continue to extend – maybe indefinitely. If the original creator is no longer benefiting from copyright royalties, it must be asked whether continual extensions are justified – especially if the work protected is no longer in print.
Copyright is a contentious and complex issue that requires a more thorough treatment than I’m prepared to give it here, but for those who are interested in following this thought, a good place to start is The World Intellectual Property Organisation. Established by the United Nations, the WIPO offers clear and helpful information on the many complex issues surrounding intellectual property and copyright.
The Importance of Ongoing Support
Supporting endeavours like the Avalon Project and Project Gutenberg, understanding what they offer and engaging in dialogue on the issues that affect them will help ensure their success. Through making use of these resources, we can encourage debate, preserve information and promote equality of public access. Not to mention ensuring many more hours of reading pleasure.
