[HN Gopher] Open Library
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Open Library
Author : notpushkin
Score : 109 points
Date : 2022-11-18 14:45 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (openlibrary.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (openlibrary.org)
| zasdffaa wrote:
| From FAQ:
|
| What is Open Library?
|
| Open Library is a universal catalog for book metadata. Our goal
| is to create a web page for every book ever published. We call it
| "Open Library" because it is a collaborative open source
| initiative, which means that anyone can use and contribute to the
| Open Library catalog. In this way, Open Library opens the doors
| to the places where you can find the book you're looking for.
| _HMCB_ wrote:
| Unfortunately the reading experience is so so. But hey, I'm
| grateful.
| dang wrote:
| Related:
|
| _Introducing the Open Library Explorer_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25497766 - Dec 2020 (37
| comments)
|
| _Importing Your Goodreads and Accessing Them with Open Library's
| APIs_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25423979 - Dec 2020
| (2 comments)
|
| _Open Library_ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24457546 -
| Sept 2020 (1 comment)
|
| _Aaron Swartz: Announcing the Open Library_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34576 - July 2007 (25
| comments)
|
| Others?
| gauddasa wrote:
| Controlled Digital Lending is a fraud that helps book publishers
| monopolize the library culture by artificially making an abundant
| resource scarce. It also helps software publishers to monetize
| the library culture.
|
| By now we should have already built a global repository where all
| digital books ever published or digitized from physical copies
| should have been available to anyone with internet access, just
| like W3C specifications.
|
| It's a shame that we are moving in this opposite direction
| without realizing what lies ahead ... walls and more walls.
| chpatrick wrote:
| Great, how do writers get paid?
| einpoklum wrote:
| Your question... it's as though someone showed you a gallery
| of photos of buildings and you would ask how the architects
| and construction workers get paid.
| gauddasa wrote:
| Writers will get paid just like internet influencers are
| getting funded by fans and sponsorships. I agree it's an
| emerging business model, but worth giving more thought.
| caslon wrote:
| I know a couple authors who get paid in this fashion. They
| all lament how it's immensely stressful, how they can never
| take a vacation, and how there's always a constant fear
| that their revenue source will be taken out by not being
| able to write during stressful life events.
|
| I agree that information should be free, but for it to be
| justly done, work needs to become optional for everyone.
| pessimizer wrote:
| Is pitching to publishers less precarious?
| PaulsWallet wrote:
| You may prefer this model but many people will not and it
| will only further the moaning and groaning about ads and
| sponsorships on the web. There is no model here isn't
| without trade-offs.
| apocalypstyx wrote:
| The problem is a great many of them now are paid next to
| nothing and with recent developments in the industry expected
| to take on more and more of the work and costs themselves as
| publishers cut back on promotion and editing services. And it
| terms of labor, publishing is an industry that stands on the
| backs of unpaid interns and underpaid workers (as with the
| recent Harper Collins strikes). Academic publishing is even
| worse, with authors also seeing little to nothing (and in
| some cases having to pay) and books costing more than $50
| (and often times above $100) when many of them have also
| started using print on demand.
|
| So the real question is, are writers getting paid now?
|
| Well, a minuscule number make Stephen King money, a handful
| make a full-time living, and the vast majority, at most, make
| pocket money and have full-time work in other areas, all
| while the publishing industry hoovers up more and more
| rights.
| arepublicadoceu wrote:
| THERE was a wall. It did not look important. It was built of
| uncut rocks roughly mortared. An adult could look right over
| it, and even a child could climb it. Where it crossed the
| roadway, instead of having a gate it degenerated into mere
| geometry, a line, an idea of boundary. But the idea was real.
| It was important. For seven generations there had been nothing
| in the world more important than that wall.
|
| Like all walls it was ambiguous, two-faced. What was inside it
| and what was outside it depended upon which side of it you were
| on.
| statusfailed wrote:
| For anyone wondering, the parent is quoting "The
| Dispossessed"[0] by Ursula K. Le Guin, which is one of my
| all-time favorite books. Definitely read it if you like
| science fiction.
|
| [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dispossessed
| kwhitefoot wrote:
| Read it even if you don't like science fiction. The science
| in it is much less important than the politics or
| anthropology; actually this is true of quite a lot of the
| best science fiction.
| [deleted]
| ketzu wrote:
| This argument is applicable to all digital things, but for some
| reason it is usually only applied to books. It seems that a lot
| of software being free would be much more beneficial than free
| access to Harry Potter. I wonder if that would be as popular
| or, if for one reason or another, people are okay with just
| having voluntarily free software being free.
| zozbot234 wrote:
| > By now we should have already built a global repository where
| all digital books ever published or digitized from physical
| copies should have been available to anyone with internet
| access
|
| The Open Library is pretty much this... for books in the public
| domain. AKA many more books than anyone could feasibly read in
| an entire lifetime, even if one only considered the "Great
| Classics" of Western literature. If your aim is to expand
| access to books, the lowest-hanging fruit by far is improving
| availability, findability (cataloging), reusability etc. of
| stuff that _can_ be provided on any website with no legal
| issues whatsoever.
| bentley wrote:
| Yep. I appreciate how there are so many open source projects
| whose interests align to naturally work together at different
| layers toward a future of better curation:
|
| 1. Open Library providing a database of book titles, authors,
| and other metadata (unlike Goodreads, etc. whose databases
| are proprietary).
|
| 2. Internet Archive, Google Books, and Hathitrust scanning
| books and making full scans available for download as
| copyrights expire.
|
| 3. Project Gutenberg, PGDP, etc. transcribing scans and
| unscanned books to digital text.
|
| 4. Standard Ebooks applying a consistent style guide and
| providing additional cleanup and proofreading, attractive
| covers, and more detailed HTML and EPUB metadata.
| bentley wrote:
| You'll be happy to hear that the Internet Archive, who's behind
| Open Library, regularly pushes the boundaries of digital
| lending, most recently by allowing _uncontrolled_ digital
| lending during the early days of the pandemic (calling it the
| National Emergency Library).
|
| Of course, this inevitably led to a lawsuit from the major
| publishers. In my less optimistic moments, I fear that the
| library will be found legally in the wrong despite its
| attempted justifications, and that it will lead to the demise
| of the entire Internet Archive.
| hutattedonmyarm wrote:
| I had been using OL for a while when looking for alternatives to
| goodreads. Ultimately didn't end up sticking with it though,
| because taking care of two separate to-read/read lists (each on
| OL and GR) turned out to be too annoying, especially since OL had
| so many books missing and their search is subpar.
|
| I should give them another try to, Goodreads has become worse and
| I got used to managing a second pair of lists (at TheStoryGraph)
| raybb wrote:
| I really love open library and have volunteered with them a bit
| over the past few years. They have an exceptionally friendly
| community, there are weekly calls anyone can hop on who wants to
| work on an issue. Mek and company are very helpful and support
| people in starting all kinds of projects.
|
| If you're at all interested in volunteering to do software work
| they are a great place to start. Plenty of frontend, backend,
| infra, and design problems that could use someone to take the
| lead and make it happen. :)
| aleksandrh wrote:
| I love Open Library (and the internet archive project in
| general)--I've read so many good books through them! I really
| hope they don't get shut down.
|
| They're also truly open source:
| https://github.com/internetarchive/openlibrary/
| christiangenco wrote:
| I was hoping this was the reincarnation of zlib.
| CBarkleyU wrote:
| You should be looking at the genesis of libraries, you might
| find the answers there :)
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