Max Kaiser has published "Putting 600,000 Books Online: the Large-Scale Digitisation Partnership between the Austrian National Library and Google" in the latest issue of LIBER Quarterly. Here's an excerpt: In a public-private partnership with Google, the Austrian National Library is digitising its historical book holdings. Some 600,000 volumes from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries will be digitised and made available free of charge. The project demonstrates that public-private partnerships can be successful in enabling our heritage institutions to provide large-scale access to their holdings, provided that such partnerships are not exclusive and free access is ensured. The article outlines the preparatory phase...

New Features Auto-adding: Add an option to check for duplicates when auto adding. Content server: Export a second record via mDNS that points to the full OPDS feed in addition to the one pointing to the Stanza feed. The new record is of type _calibre._tcp. Allow specifying a set of categories that are not partitioned even if they contain a large number of items in the Tag Browser. Preference is available under Look & Feel->Tag Browser Allow setting a URL prefix for the content server that run embedded in the calibre GUI as well. Allow output of identifiers data in CSV/XML/BiBTeX catalogs Driver for Motorola Droid...

UPDATE: Penguin Group Terminating Its Contract with OverDrive (by Michael Kelley, LJ) “In a stunning development, Penguin Group has extricated itself from its contract with OverDrive, the primary supplier of ebooks to public libraries. ‘Looking ahead, we are continuing to talk about our future plans for ebook and digital audiobook availability for library lending with a number of partners providing these services,’ said Erica Glass, in a prepared statement. Penguin is negotiating a “continuance agreement” with OverDrive, which will allow libraries that have Penguin ebooks in their catalog to continue to have access to those titles.” From an E-Mail to OverDrive Partners Starting tomorrow (February 10, 2012),...

The BBC reports that the UK government’s Department for Education is launching a reading contest for 7 to 12 year olds. (Press release.) The idea is to get kids hooked on reading for pleasure—a good intention to be sure. [Schools Minister Nick] Gibb said: "Children should always have a book on the go. The difference in achievement between children who read for half an hour a day in their spare time and those who do not is huge - as much as a year's education by the time they are 15." (It’s worth...

We’ve previously reported on the FAA approving and several airlines switching to iPads to replace multipound stacks of paper in the cockpit. Now that is spreading to the government. The US Air Force is purchasing 18,000 iPads to use in C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster cargo planes. By reducing the weight that its planes carry, the move could save the Air Force as much as $1.2 million in fuel costs per year. (I wonder how much is saved in fuel costs by airline passengers bringing Kindles instead of a bunch of print books?) "Moving...

Amazon has been racking up a reputation as “the enemy” in publishing circles. That has led to a sort of “with us or against us” mentality in which any formerly respected person who is seen to work with Amazon in any capacity whatsoever suddenly gets tarred with that brush. It happened with Larry Kirshbaum, the long-time publishing-industry exec and agent who Amazon tapped to run its publishing subsidiary, who Mike Shatzkin says “has gone from one of the most well-liked people in publishing to the one of the most reviled.” And PaidContent’s Laura Hazard Owen reports it seems...

From the description on the British App Store: The draft score of Handel's oratorio "Messiah" is one of the greatest musical treasures in the British Library.  Handel established and developed the English oratorio as a musical genre, and "Messiah" is its best known and best loved example.  As only fragmentary sketches survive, this manuscript is the source for Handel's first known ideas for the work; it also includes many of his alterations for later performances.  It illuminates his working methods and includes performance directions.  It's detailed dating reveals the composer's characteristic speed of composition: the work was begun on 22 Augurst...

When it comes to copyright and piracy, it often seems that some of the most vehement objectors don’t practice what they preach. The Boston Phoenix’s Carly Carioli has posted an editorial to the Phoenix’s blog calling out the New York Times, which published a couple of scorching columns on piracy over the weekend, for at the same time ripping off an article to which the Phoenix holds the copyright. The article in question is a 36-year-old investigative report into football injuries which was scanned and uploaded in PDF form to the New York Times’s website and linked from an...

In a slightly odd reaction to the public anti-SOPA backlash, movie studio Paramount has decided to try to open a dialogue discussing copyright infringement.  The odd part is that they chose law professors to dialogue with.  Details are in the article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article suggests that the strategy of talking to law professors, as opposed to tech experts (or, possibly, average students) will not result in anything useful: “I don’t understand why, if they truly wanted to engage consumers, they would approach law professors, especially those at the most elite schools,” Mr. Goldman wrote in an e-mail...

From the National Library of Israel Web Site The manuscripts found at the National Library are from the collection of Abraham Shalom Yehuda (1877-1951), an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. Professor Shalom Yehuda purchased the manuscripts at a public auction at London’s Sotheby’s in 1936. Other manuscripts in the collection, dealing mostly with the topic of alchemy, were purchased by the well-known economist, John Maynard Keynes, and are located at King’s College in Cambridge University. The National Library’s collection of the Newton Papers is now available to the general public in digital format. All of the papers are also linked to the Newton Project, where they...

From The Bookseller: Nearly a quarter of all books sold on Hive since October have been digital, Gardners has revealed. The book wholesaler launched the consumer-facing site in June, linking with 350 independent booksellers and giving them the much called-for ability to compete with larger, chain retailers in selling e-books. In September, the company announced it would be the first UK platform with the capability to sell Google e-books and now Hive says nearly 25% of all sales through Hive have been digital. However, the company would not give exact sales figures and Google declined to give an update on its digital book...

Publishers Weekly reports that the American Booksellers Association has become the latest bookstore entity to join the boycott of books produced by Amazon’s publishing arm. Indeed, the ABA’s for-profit subsidiary, IndieCommerce, has begun removing those titles from its database. IndieCommerce director Matt Supko wrote in an email announcement that the move was in response to Amazon’s policy of “locking in e-book exclusives which other retailers are not allowed to sell.” IndieCommerce has adopted a new policy of listing only “titles that are made available to retailers for sale in all available formats”. Individual bookstores can still choose to carry...