Behold! The Library of Congress's audacious plan to digitize and share the nation's treasures

Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/10/06/digital-first.html

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The vatican should follow this example.

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All major institutions, including the vatican, should be open and transparent.

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Bravo! This is great news.

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Everyone should follow this example.

This is a great thing, but I read the second headline the wrong way at first and so was confused that the digitizing effort began in the 8th century.

Hope it all moves along faster than that.

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Beware! The last time they did something like this they were destroying the originals.

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Are they going to merge with the CIA, too? Hiro Protagonist approves.

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There is very little money for digitizing in the U.S. I have tried to get grants and have been unsuccessful. So I run projects by myself on a shoestring. My efforts are really not going to make much difference in the grand scheme, but I persist. My point is, good for the LoC, but we need a massive effort in many institutions for us to be on the right trajectory with digitization.

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Interesting.

Curiously, it is the US research and library community which pushed for digitising African herbaria and herbaria containing type material from Africa. From the outside, quite some money was moved around, but I could be mistaken. The efforts are, sadly, paywalled for most people. (ALUKA became part of JSTOR.)

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Have they hired a Professor of Symbolololololololololgy to help out?

I was thinking that they could sell off the originals to pay for the scanning.

What was that sci-fi story where they’re digitizing a library’s stock through the most destructive means possible? It’s something like, push the books through a garden shredder and scan the flurry of ripped-up paper in real-time…

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That is actually my one concern about the Vatican’s project; I fear it might somehow spark off another Dan Brown… thingy.

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… the thought of the originals ending up in the hands of the rich elite irks me. Of course, so much stuff is already in their hands. When the revolution comes, the looting is going to be breathtaking.

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