Pittsburgh Innovates

Looking for a great, possibly obscure read?

CMU’s Million Book Digital Library is up and running, bringing the project one step closer to its goal of a universal library of online books where the world’s greatest literary gems and artwork are preserved digitally for posterity.

The Million Book Project is an international venture initiated in 2002 on behalf of CMU, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India and the Library at Alexandria in Egypt. But don’t go looking for the great classics of the English language just yet. Many of the first digitized selections are rare and obscure works that might have otherwise been lost in time, says Michael Shamos, CMU computer science professor.

“The big debate was if we do a million, which million?” asks Shamos. Other search engines are already digitizing the English classics. “One of our goals was preservation. When there’s only one copy of a palm leaf sitting in a blistering library in India, not everyone can see it. Now everyone can see it. Once books are on the Internet, they are immortal.”

The Million Book Project –already on its way to the 10 Million Book Project--represents the world’s largest, university-based digital library of freely accessible books. The work is ongoing, as library science students around the world embrace the arduous task of a new age scribe, scanning the texts.

The Million Book Project received $3.5 M in seed funding from the National Science Foundation and substantial in-kind contributions from hardware and software manufacturers. To peruse the selection, click here.