Vision of an Open Library

Today we are making a step towards building the library we
have all dreamed of -- the library that makes all the published
works of humankind available to everyone in the world.

While large in scope and ambition, the goal is within our grasp.
Achieving it requires librarians, authors, government officials,
and technologists to build towards a shared vision. Fortunately,
we are seeing this happen.

And what a world it could be! Imagine a neighborhood library
that has millions of books on its virtual bookshelf, so that the
talented math whiz in a rural community can explore high math
without restriction. Imagine a recent immigrant from a distant
country who can now share the children's' books that were
so important to them growing up -- with their own children.
Imagine an elderly person able to have a large print edition
of any book every published, or any book read aloud to them.
In this future, a talented young scholar can publish a new book
to this great library and illuminate some subject that might not
previously have made it through the difficult publication process.

Haven't we already achieved this with the World Wide Web?
Well, yes and no. There is more information available to those
with computer access than we ever imagined, but few writings
on the Web are more than 10 years old. There is much worth
reading from all the ages. Also, the book format is likely to be
useful for many years to come even if it is moved from place
to place via computer networks.

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