Building an 'open library' on the Internet

Here's an idea: A library with every book in the world. Not just every book book that's in-print and out-of-print, but every book. Metadata about every book ever written, and direct access to its content when possible.

Organizers of The Open Library say it will be:

A product of the people: letting them create and curate its catalog, contribute to its content, participate in its governance, and have full, free access to its data. In an era where library data and Internet databases are being run by money-seeking companies behind closed doors, it's more important than ever to be open.

Builders of The Open Library have been working with a copy of the Library of Congress card catalog, data from publishers, and a new database system for dynamic records. They wrote a wiki to let users input data and search through everything.

Here's more information and a site demo.

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Steve Weber is author of Plug Your Book! Online Book Marketing for Authors