WaffleBox

The Open Library project, an ambitious project started by Brewster Kahle and Aaron Swartz sets out to create an online catalog of books.

Our goal is to build the world’s greatest library, then put it up on the Internet free for all to use and edit. Books are the place you go when you have something you want to share with the world — our planet’s cultural legacy. And never has there been a bigger attempt to bring them all together. - Aaron

The first thought that came to my mind when I read Aaron’s announcement was, “isn’t this just Amazon?”. A quick judgment on my part and one that is completely dumbfounded. What they are setting out to do is create a complete catalog of every single book ever published, not just by title. So if a book has multiple editions, across multiple publishes, each stands as its own entity in their database.

Most attractive is how the project will serve finding books in the future. The reason I first thought of Amazon when I hear about this project was because Amazon is my first point of contact when searching for or researching a book to read. Not necessarily even to buy. Even before I go the public library I check Amazon. The Open Library Project sets out to be the first source people go to when researching books, from finding where to buy to where to access the book online for free.

The project is built on a new wiki application they build just for the occasion and anyone will be able to edit metadata and add books as needed.

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