A Canadian Internet guru and law professor, Toronto Star columnist Michael Geist, is proposing that his country become the first to “create a comprehensive national digital library. The library, which would be fully accessible online, would contain a digitally scanned copy of every book, government report, and legal decision ever published in Canada.”
Geist’s laudable vision is certainly in line with TeleRead as described in 1991 in Computerworld, and I wish him luck. Of course, getting the e-books online, along with other content, isn’t enough. Efforts should be made to blend the virtual library into a country’s schools and existing library system–both in terms of professional guidance for librarians and others, and in terms of arrangements for the spread of good e-reading hardware. Attention to the creation of a robust e-book standard would help as well.
Details
Meanwhile here are more details from today’s column by Geist, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa:
While digitally scanning more than 10 million Canadian books and documents is a daunting task, the Google project illustrates that it is financially feasible. Reports suggest that it will cost Google approximately $10 to scan each book.
Assuming similar costs for a Canadian project and a five-year timeline, the $20 million annual price tag represents a fraction of the total governmental commitment toward Canadian culture and Internet development.
In fact, the most significant barriers to a national digital library do not arise from fiscal challenges but rather from two potential copyright reforms currently winding their way through the system.
Needless to say, Geist is a fierce opponent of hyperextended copyright terms.
(Found via the Very Interesting People list.)
