Open Library is now a National Emergency Library
MiscBooks / digital library7 Comments
I got an email today about the Open Library. They are now suspending all wait lists and increasing the amount of loans to 10 at a time. This is available worldwide.
To address our unprecedented global and immediate need for access to reading and research materials, as of today, March 24, 2020, the Internet Archive will suspend waitlists for the 1.4 million (and growing) books in our lending library by creating a National Emergency Library to serve the nation’s displaced learners. This suspension will run through June 30, 2020, or the end of the US national emergency, whichever is later.
During the waitlist suspension, users will be able to borrow books from the National Emergency Library without joining a waitlist, ensuring that students will have access to assigned readings and library materials that the Internet Archive has digitized for the remainder of the US academic calendar, and that people who cannot physically access their local libraries because of closure or self-quarantine can continue to read and thrive during this time of crisis, keeping themselves and others safe.
This library brings together all the books from Phillips Academy Andover and Marygrove College, and much of Trent University’s collections, along with over a million other books donated from other libraries to readers worldwide that are locked out of their libraries.
This is a response to the scores of inquiries from educators about the capacity of our lending system and the scale needed to meet classroom demands because of the closures. Working with librarians in Boston area, led by Tom Blake of Boston Public Library, who gathered course reserves and reading lists from college and school libraries, we determined which of those books the Internet Archive had already digitized. Through that work we quickly realized that our lending library wasn’t going to scale to meet the needs of a global community of displaced learners. To make a real difference for the nation and the world, we would have to take a bigger step.
“The library system, because of our national emergency, is coming to aid those that are forced to learn at home, ” said Brewster Kahle, Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. “This was our dream for the original Internet coming to life: the Library at everyone’s fingertips.”
Public support for this emergency measure has come from over 100 individuals, libraries and universities across the world, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). “Ubiquitous access to open digital content has long been an important goal for MIT and MIT Libraries. Learning and research depend on it,” said Chris Bourg, Director of MIT Libraries. “In a global pandemic, robust digital lending options are key to a library’s ability to care for staff and the community, by allowing all of us to work remotely and maintain the recommended social distancing.”
We understand that we’re not going to be able to meet everyone’s needs; our collection, at 1.4 million modern books, is a fraction of the size of a large metropolitan library system or a great academic library. The books that we’ve digitized have been acquired with a focus on materials published during the 20th century, the vast majority of which do not have a commercially available ebook. This means that while readers and students are able to access latest best sellers and popular titles through services like OverDrive and Hoopla, they don’t have access to the books that only exist in paper, sitting inaccessible on their library shelves. That’s where our collection fits in—we offer digital access to books, many of which are otherwise unavailable to the public while our schools and libraries are closed. In addition to the National Emergency Library, the Internet Archive also offers free public access to 2.5 million fully downloadable public domain books, which do not require waitlists to view.
We recognize that authors and publishers are going to be impacted by this global pandemic as well. We encourage all readers who are in a position to buy books to do so, ideally while also supporting your local bookstore. If they don’t have the book you need, then Amazon or Better World Books may have copies in print or digital formats. We hope that authors will support our effort to ensure temporary access to their work in this time of crisis. We are empowering authors to explicitly opt in and donate books to the National Emergency Library if we don’t have a copy. We are also making it easy for authors to contact us to take a book out of the library.
A final note on calling this a “National Emergency” Library. We lend to the world, including these books. We chose that language deliberately because we are pegging the suspension of the waitlists to the duration of the US national emergency. Users all over the world have equal access to the books now available, regardless of their location.
Open Library is a good source for out-of-print, not-yet-digitized books. I have borrowed books in the past, many of which were scanned physical books. It’s not perfect, but sometimes they have the one book you’ve been searching for. They also rely on donations to keep going. Thanks for mentioning them, Jayne.
@Darlynne: I try to donate to them when I can. They’re also my first place to check when a book hasn’t been digitized yet. Recently a friend mentioned a new-to-me mystery author. My library has some of the books – but started with book 5. Open Library had books 1-4 so I can try the series at the start and see how I like it.
Thank you so much for sharing this information.
I’ve used Open Library for several years. It’s a great resource for out of print books as well as older books that libraries don’t reliably carry any more. I have, however, had issues with their downloads for the last year. I usually read on my iPad and can’t figure out if the issue is Apple-related or something else. Eventually I get the download to work, but it usually takes 3 or 4 tries with error messages. Drives me nuts. I’ve even tried deauthorizing and re-authorizing Adobe and it didn’t help.
@RND: I”ve had some issues downloading epub files but not pdfs. Even when I tried 3-4 times, some epubs just won’t download.
I don’t know much detail but there are a lot of angry authors on twitter saying that the Open Library has pirated books available. I saw a statement from the library this morning asking any authors who wanted to to contact them about titles they felt ought not be there any they would be restricted again.
I’m more interested in it from the perspective of my son’s study as he can’t get to the libraries anymore and is struggling to find sources for his studies. I’m not so sure about the fiction books.
Something to consider I guess.
Open Library is defending this expansion on the basis of an asserted but untested legal claim called Controlled Digital Lending (CDL). CDL is based on the premise that creating and disseminating a single digital copy of an owned print book, in place of that print book, is covered under Fair Use and “first sale” rights. However, lending multiple copies has never been part of CDL and is explicitly categorized as outside the terms (see the CDL statement here). There is speculation that Brewster Kahle, who is the digital librarian for the Internet Archive (which runs Open Library) is using the current crisis to try and push support for expanded fair use and first sale provisions of digital books.
If authors directly request that their books be removed, they are taken down. But it’s an opt-out procedure, not opt-in, which means the default is that if they want your books they’ll distribute them unless you explicitly send them written requests to stop.
If they were doing this primarily with texts widely used in teaching, I could buy the argument. But they aren’t waiting to hear that books are needed, they’re just throwing up digital copies of new, in-print, genre fiction and other not-obviously-school-related works. It’s also worth pointing out that a lot of publishers are making texts digitally available in response to the crisis, texts to which they have established copyright.
ETA: According to their FAQ page, the Open Library does not base their justification on CDL (which is good since CDL doesn’t allow it). This is “like” CDL, but it’s a move from controlled to uncontrolled lending which is justified by the pandemic. That’s their argument.