Free course texts might just be in the stars for U of T students-and anyone else with a computer.
Yahoo recently announced its new Open Content Alliance project, a consortium of companies and libraries that hopes to create a digital archive of multicultural text and multimedia content online. U of T, along with the University of California, has become one of the founding institutions providing books to internet giant Yahoo to transfer to the web.
“We think that this is a great new initiative and we are really pleased to be involved on the forefront,” said Carole Moore, chief librarian at the John P. Robarts Library. “This can be developed in many ways to the benefit of our students and our faculty and to making Canadian material available to the world.”
U of T is heading the selection of books to be contributed from Canada to the collection being established by the Alliance. Jonathan Bengtson at U of T’s Kelly Library is the chief coordinator of all the Canadian universities involved.
The Canadian material to be included in this collection is not only chosen by Robarts librarians, said Moore-the choice is based on what students want to be put up.
Even though the project is still in its initial stages, its support has grown markedly in the past few months with other universities and organizations joining such as Columbia University, Emory University, HP Labs, University of British Columbia, McMaster, York University, and others.
The issue of copyright infringement has so far been avoided-though it won’t be for long. By focusing on older literary material, the Open Content Alliance has been able to skirt the problems that the similar project Google Print faced regarding copyright. Publishing houses did not shy away from suing Google for alleged infringement, and Yahoo has contrasted themselves to Google with claims that they will get publishers’ permission to scan copyrighted material.
The fact that Open Content Alliance has so far stuck to pre-nineteenth century books in the collection is really just more germane to their mandate according to Moore.
“The primary aim of such a project is to ensure that books that are publicly available now should remain so even in the future.”
With this online archive actually up and functioning, U of T students will benefit from free texts. Not only will research material be accessible from any computer but classics and English majors might soon be able to read their course books online at no cost-a boon at a time when textbook costs are skyrocketing.
The website www.openlibrary.org gives a quick glimpse to what Open Content promises. Surprisingly, a book on this site looks formally like a real book, and readers can flip through it by clicking on the pages. Words or phrases can be found using a search engine so that time isn’t spent flipping through the entire book, or thumbing through an index or concordance.
The step towards free knowledge even aims to eventually include the blind. An option on the website allows for users to hear a recording of the book. Even more impressive, according to Moore, people around the world are volunteering to record audio versions of each book or convert into a format that is accessible by special readers used by the blind.
Since U of T is heading the selection of books, this might open up the opportunity for a work-study program where students can help in scanning and digitizing the works or in even making the works accessible to blind people.
There is no definite date on when Open Content will be up and running. How quickly we see it will depend, as nearly all altruistic and noble efforts do, on the extent of funding.
