Have a Hand in Scan-on-Demand

Want to get in on all the book scanning that's taking the library world by storm? Well, look no further than Open Library's scanning partnership with Boston Public Library (BPL). The recently announced program allows individuals to request the digitization of public domain books listed in the Open Library (whose goal is eventually to have a web page for every book ever published and accompanying digital texts for as many of those as possible).

If a public domain work held by BPL in Open Library's catalog hasn't yet been scanned, the item record will display a “Scan This Book” button. Click it, and a librarian at BPL will be prompted to grab the item off of the shelf and queue it up for digitization. In three to five days, you'll get an email telling you that the digital copy of your chosen book is ready to go. Of course, in the spirit of openness, the digital copy isn't yours alone—copies will also be made available through the Open Library item page and through Open Library's parent venture, the Internet Archive. For more info, and a list of public domain books along with each item's scanning status, check out openlibrary.org/bpl.