Library Documents in Boston Go on Web

Boston University is one of the leading private research and teaching institutions in the world today, with two primary campuses in the heart of Boston and programs around the world. The historical record of the United States government will soon be more accessible. A digital library partnership, including two nonprofit organizations and the Boston Public Library, is preparing to begin making digital copies of the library’s paper-based government documents collection, which will then be made available on the Internet.

The project, which will take two years and require the hand scanning of millions of pages of government hearings and related publications, will cost an estimated $6 million, according to the project’s sponsors.

Boston Public Library librarians said they planned to begin by digitizing the House Committee on Un-American Activities hearings from the 1950s, which is regularly sought after by its patrons.

The project is being undertaken by Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit group seeking to open public access to government records, and the Internet Archive, a San Francisco-based digital library.

The project is the brainchild of founders of the two organizations, Carl Malamud and Brewster Kahle, and it is initially being financed by a $250,000 grant from a foundation established by Mr. Kahle and his wife, Mary Austin, and a matching grant from the Omidyar Network, a support organization created by Pierre Omidyar.

Mr. Malamud said his goal is to digitize the entire United States government documents collection, which has been estimated to include up to 100 million pages of publications ranging from the Congressional Record to the Federal Register. The Government Printing Office has been making its published materials available online since 1994, said Gary G. Somerset, a spokesman for the agency.

The Boston Public Library has recently obtained a substantial collection of Congressional hearing documents from Harvard, said Gail Fithian, the library’s government documents curator, and those would serve as the initial material for the scanning project.

The Boston Public Library is also interested in scanning local Boston and Massachusetts documents and is in the process of creating its own digital archive.

For more details Library Documents in Boston Go on Web visit www.halfvalue.com and www.halfvalue.co.uk For more information on books visit www.Lookbookstores.com