Classics in the Million Book Library

"Classicists face a unique opportunity. Google, Microsoft, the Open Content Alliance and other emerging projects (such as the European i2010 initiative) have begun to create very large collections ultimately designed to exceed in size the largest academic print libraries on earth. Classics stands to gain more than many disciplines. Among work published in the United States, many useful editions, reference materials and publications are in the public domain and thus are among the first texts to be included in these projects. If large entities such as Google and Microsoft are able to provide access to materials protected by copyright, whether by application of fair use or by licensing with publishers, the potential value of these collections increases dramatically. Classicists have already spent a generation laying the foundations for a digital infrastructure within which to explore the ancient world. While the potential for research is immense, Classics thus is well poised to make these materials intellectually accessible and coherent to vast new audiences. These vast new audiences include not only the general public but also scholars without access to major research universities – one member of the committee cited a September meeting with classicists from the former eastern bloc who depend almost entirely on freely available scholarly resources on the internet..."